YAHVISM 


AND  OTHER  DISCOURSES 


BY 

THE  LATE   RABBI   ADOLPH    MOSES 


EDITED  WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 

BY 

H.  G.  ENELOW,  D.  D. 
Rabbi  of  Congregation  Adath  Israel,  Louisville,  Ky. 


PUBLISHED   BY 

THE   LOUISVILLE   SECTION 

OF   THE 

COUNCIL   OF   JEWISH   WOMEN 


LOUISVILLE 
1903 


SfecR 
Annex 


NUNEMACHER    PRE68. 
LOUISVILLE,   KY. 


Stack 


73 


we  oive  to  the 
worlb  that  wbfcb  ourselves 
batb  blesseb. 


Xouisville  Section 
Council  of  Jcwtsb  Momen 


PREFACE. 


The  issue  of  this  volume  is  due  to  the  desire  of  the 
Louisville  Section  of  the  Council  of  Jewish  Women  to 
show  its  reverence  and  affection  for  the  memory  of  the 
sainted  author.  The  editor  appreciates  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing been  entrusted  with  his  task.  He  has  had  delight  in 
rendering  this  humble  service  of  love  to  the  undying 
soul  of  his  late  colleague  and  friend.  His  only  regret 
is  that  he  has  been  unable  to  fulfill  his  duty  less  imper- 
fectly. But  it  has  not  been  easy  to  choose  out  of  a  mass 
of  material  the  portion  most  valuable  and  fit  for  a  book 
such  as  this.  Moreover,  few  of  the  discourses  were  left 
by  their  writer  in  a  state  appropriate  to  publication  in 
permanent  form,  and  the  editor,  while  seeking  to  present 
the  text  in  most  readable  shape,  has  not  dared  to  take 
liberties  with  the  matter  at  hand.  It  is  his  fervid  hope, 
however,  that  his  work  may  further  the  aims  and  ideals  of 
his  lamented  friend,  to  whom,  surely,  naught  might  have 
been  more  pleasing,  as  a  sign  of  love  and  gratitude,  than 
the  publishing  of  such  a  volume. 

Also,  the  editor  wishes  to  give  thanks  to  the  members  of 
the  Publication  Committee  of  the  Louisville  Section  of 
the  Council  of  Jewish  Women  for  aid  in  various  matters; 
to  the  several  friends  who  kindly  lent  him  some  letters 
unveiling  the  depth  of  feeling  and  friendship  that  was  in 
the  author ;  to  Rabbi  Isaac  S.  Moses,  for  data  bearing  on  his 
lamented  brother's  early  life ;  and,  above  all,  to  Mrs.  Moses 
and  her  family  for  valuable  help,  especially  to  Mr.  Melville 
Moses,  who  for  some  years  had  been  collecting  most 
piously  the  writings  of  his  father,  and  thus  unconsciously 
cleared  the  way  for  the  present  work. 

H.  G.  E. 

LOUISVILLE,  December  18,  1902. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION       ix 

I.  YAHVISM 

Spoken  at  the  Graduation  Exercises  of  the  Hebrew  Union 
College,  Cincinnati,  June  15,  1894 1 

II.  CEREMONIALISM 

January  15,  1894 11 

III.  THE  RELIGION  WE  OFFER  TO  THE  GENTILES 

JANUARY,  1896. 

i.  Introductory        26 

ii.  Germs  of  Religious  and  Ethical  Truth  in  Polytheism  .     .  86 

iii.  The  Unity  of  Mankind 43 

IV.  THE  FIRST  AND  GREATEST  OF  ALL  MORAL  IDEAS 

JUI,Y  28,  1896 55 

V.  THE  IDEALS  OF  HUMANITY     .  ....   62 


VI.  CONTRIBUTIONS   OF  AMERICA  TO  THE   WORLD'S 
CIVILIZATION 

DECEMBER,  1892. 

i.  The  Nature  of  Civilization 70 

ii.  The  Moral  Emancipation  of  the  Individual 79 

iii.  The  Economic  Emancipation  of  the  Individual   ....     88 
iv.  The  Emancipation  of  Woman 98 

VII.  WHO  Is  THE  REAL  ATHEIST? 

Chicago,  September  21,  1898 108 

VIII.  LOSING  GOD  AND  FINDING  GOD 

Day  of  Atonement  5661  (1900) 117 

IX.  THE  REASONS  WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  GOD 

Spoken  at  the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis, 
Rochester,  July  10,  1895       186 

X.  WHY  I  AM  A  JEW 

October  81,  1897 158 

XI.  WHY  I  STUDIED  MEDICINE 

June  18,  1893 164 

XII.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ENVY 

April  28,  1896 175 


CONTENTS— CONTINUED. 

XIII.  FROM  SELFISHNESS  TO  BENEVOLENCE 

APRIL-MAY,  1898.  PAGE 

i.  Egotism  and  Altruism 186 

ii.  Pessimism  and  Medieval  Asceticism 192 

iii.  The  Reasonableness  of  Biblical  Ethics 198 

iv.  Benevolence  is  Self- Realization 204 

v.  Benevolence  and  Justice       211 

XIV.  ETHNOLOGICAL  FICTIONS 

Read  at  the  Jewish  Denominational  Congress,  Chicago, 
August-September,  1893 216 

XV.  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MACCABEAN  STRUGGLE 

December  14,  1898 240 

XVI.  ERNEST  RENAN 

November  28,  1893 251 

XVII.  ALFRED  TENNYSON 

October  17,  1892 261 

XVIII.  ALEXANDER  III 

November  22,  1894 269 

XIX.  JOHN  ALBERT  BROADUS 

March  31,  1895        284 

XX.  ISAAC  MAYER  WISE 

Cincinnati,  March  14,  1899 295 

XXI.  FILIAL  PIETY 

June  8,  1894 309 

XXII.  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  PULPIT 

July  8,  1899 320 

XXIII.  WHAT  MAY  MINISTERS  AND  L/AYMEN  ACCOMPLISH 

IN  HALF-AN-HOUR  ? 831 

XXIV.  HELL  AND  HEAVEN 

April  14,  1892 840 

XXV.  Music  AND  RELIGION 

September  1,  1900       344 

XXVI.  JACOB'S  DREAM 

September  18,  1901 .847 


INTRODUCTION. 


'  The  highest  reward  which  mankind  can  bestow  upon  the  self-sacri- 
ficing promoters  of  human  progress,  the  pathfinders  of  humanity  and  the 
revealers  of  wisdom,  is  to  keep  their  personalities  and  the  story  of  their 
achievements  enshrined  in  the  grateful  memory  of  all  generations." — 
Page  207. 


from  the  scenes  where  the  best  part  of  his  life  was 
spent  and  where  he  fell  asleep  amid  devoted  friends 
and  followers,  Adolph  Eliezer  Asher  Moses  was  born.  It  is 
in  a  strange  environment  that  he  got  his  early  training,  that 
his  first  impressions  were  formed,  and  the  seed  of  culture 
and  piety  was  thrown  into  his  receptive  soul.  But  to  those 
remote  and  quaint  spots  we  must  turn  in  order  to  appre- 
ciate fully  the  learning,  the  idealism,  the  innate  piety,  in 
brief,  the  complex  character  which  rendered 
The  Adolph  Moses  so  unique  a  figure  among  the 

Author's  rabbis  of  America.     For  his  character  was 

Complex  complex,  as  all  who  have  known  him  would 

Character.  attest:  his  soul  presented  an  uncommon  com- 

mingling of  power  and  frailty,  of  tenderness, 
ambition,  simplicity,  sternness,  passion,  hate  and  love, 
each  trait  in  turn  appearing  in  his  work,  cropping  out 
very  often  in  his  speech  and  action.  Abstract  thought, 
critical  inquiry,  radical  ideas,  and  arctic  analysis  of  the 
objects  of  knowledge  alternated  in  him  with  a  tropical 
emotionalism  and  unseverable  attachment  to  the  traditions 
of  the  past.  Moreover,  though  in  later  life  he  was  wont 
to  enshrine  the  memories  of  his  youth  behind  the  curtain 
of  silence,  he  was  one  of  those  men  in  whom  the  past  is 
never  dead,  who  again  and  again  live  over  the  events  and 


the  thoughts  and  the  feelings  of  the  long  ago,  and  who, 
like  the  giant  Antaeus  in  the  myth,  must  ever  touch  afresh 
their  native  soil  in  order  to  regain  valor  and  might.  Indeed, 
it  was  but  a  year  or  two  ere  he  passed  away  that  he 
avowed,  in  a  letter  to  one  of  his  sons,  that  in  the  essentials 
of  faith  and  longing  he  felt  himself  the  same  still  as  when 
a  mere  boy  in  the  old-fashioned  orthodox  Polish  town: 
a  confession  that  may  be  taken  as  a  key  to  his  whole 
nature  and  work. 

The  plain  fact  is  that  the  townlet  which  once  meant 
the   world  to  Adolph  Moses — with  its  varied  scenes  and 
multiety    of    talents    and    tempers,    with    its    many-hued 
examples  of  human  character,  with  all   its 
His  First  patterns    of    pettiness    and    greatness    and 

Impressions.  shrewdness  and  cruelty  and  love  and  ideal- 
ism and  holiness — left  an  indelible  mark  on 
his  spirit.  Are  not  small  towns,  as  a  rule,  most  comprehen- 
sive microcosms,  and  profitable  centers  for  the  true  study 
of  human  nature?  At  least,  the  impressions  they  make 
upon  the  observer's  mind  are  much  more  definite,  owing 
to  the  ingenuous  way  they  have  of  revealing  the  faults 
and  the  virtues  of  their  denizens,  than  the  ambiguous 
knowledge  of  one  another  men  acquire  under  the  politic 
reticence  of  the  worldly-wise  metropolis.  I  doubt  whether 
among  all  the  ideas  gathered  by  Adolph  Moses  in  the 
course  of  his  travels  and  studies,  whether  among  all  the 
opinions  he  formed  in  his  later  life,  in  the  period  of  his 
noblest  achievements,  there  were  any  as  potent  and  abiding 
as  those  implanted  in  his  soul  by  the  townlet  in  which  he 
played  and  prayed  as  a  little  child. 

Kletchevo  may  be  too  small  for  geographic  honors,  and 
one  seeks  its  name  in  vain  on  a  map  of  old  dismembered 
Poland.  We  are  told,  however,  that  it  lies  close  upon  the 
Prussian  frontier,  and  that  there,  on  the  third  day  of  May 
in  the  year  1840,  Adolph  Moses  was  born.  He  was  the 


XI 

oldest  son  of  Rabbi  Israel  Baruch  Moses,  who,  though  a 
young  talmudist  of  distinction  and  rare  piety,  as  I  shall 

presently  have  occasion   to  point  out,  was 
Parentage.          loath  to  occupy  a  rabbinic  position,  in  accord 

with  an  old  Jewish  antipathy  to  the  exploita- 
tion of  Sacred  Knowledge  for  a  livelihood.  More  honorable 
it  was  deemed  in  those  days  and  among  those  folk — so  near, 
and  yet  so  far- — for  a  young  scholar  having  wedded  a  rich 
man's  daughter  to  accept  the  hospitality  of  his  father-in- 
law  and  to  pursue  his  holy  studies  while  dwelling  under 
the  roof,  and  eating  at  the  table,  of  the  latter.  That  Israel 
Baruch's  father-in-law,  Rabbi  Joseph  Graditz,  should  have 
been  able  to  indulge  in  such  a  pious  luxury  as  a  scholarly 
spouse  for  his  daughter,  is  a  surprise;  for,  from  the  writ- 
ings of  his  grandson  we  gather  that  Reb  Jossel,  as  R. 
Joseph  was  named  in  the  dialect  of  provincial  familiarity, 
served  as  precentor  at  the  synagogue,  an  office  not  designed 
ordinarily  to  enrich  its  devout  occupants.  However, 
as  those  were  not  the  days  of  American  fortunes,  Reb 
Jossel  was  rich  in  his  way.  Besides,  unlike  the  majority 
of  his  cantorial  confreres,  he  was  a  dauntless  man  of  inde- 
pendent disposition,  who  would  truckle  to  none,  not  even 
the  proverbial  rich  man  of  his  community,  and  who  was 
peculiarly  disenmeshed  of  local  superstitions — a  quality  of 
no  mean  merit  for  those  times.  And  under  his  thatch  it 
was  that  R.  Israel  Baruch  Moses  lived  while,  despite  his 
marriage  with  Eve  Graditz,  he  continued  faithful  to  his 
old  supernal  Bride,  the  Torah ;  and  there  his  children  were 
born  and  grew. 

Is  that  humble  Polish  cottage  still  extant  in  which 
one  of  our  most  famous  rabbis  passed  the  morning  of  his 
life?  We  doubt  it.  But,  albeit  ruined,  the  noted  son  that 
issued  from  it  has  drawn  its  picture  and  built  it  anew  in 
his  memoirs.  It  is  quite  natural  that  Adolph  Moses, 
though  master  of  a  forceful  and  limpid  English  style, 
should  have  reverted  to  German,  the  language  of  his  youth, 
in  writing  his  reminiscences.  From  them,  however,  we 


Xll 

derive  our  familiar  knowledge  of  his  early  years,  at  least  of 
the  surroundings  in  which  his  character  began  to  build  and 
the  basis  of  his  education  was  laid.     Now,  the  chief  event 
in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  child  in  Poland — and  what  events 
seem  more  momentous  than  those  busying 
In  the  Morn-     and  irradiating  our  childhood? — is  the  mail- 
ing Glow.  gural  day  at  the  Heder,  the  elementary  relig- 
ious school.     To  parent  and  child  that  is  a 
wellnigh   sacred   occasion,    the   first   landmark   in   a   life 
dedicated   to  solemnity  and   godliness,  an  incident  open- 
ing  vistas   of  piety  and   learning   and    good    deeds.       A 
devout  father  will  wrap  his  child  in  his  own   Tallith,  or 
praying-shawl,    and    carry    him    to    Heder    on    the    first 
day,    thus    investing    the    occasion     with     holy    signifi- 
cance.    Adolph  Moses  was  but  four  years  of  age  when  that 
event  took  place.     The   Heder  was   located  in  the  very 
house  of  his  birth,  which  was  the  communal  edifice.     The 
latter  was   bipartite.     The  eastern   portion,  inhabited  for 
some  thirty  years  previous  to  the  birth  of  Adolph  Moses 
by  his  grandfather,  contained  a  large  living-room,  with  a 
huge  hearth  and  two  low  windows,  and  one  or  two  smaller 
chambers,  not  to  mention  the  closet  adjoining  the  main 
hall  in  which  Reb  Jossel's  good  wife — kindest  soul,  most 
selfless  and  helpful  of  women,  according  to  her  grandson — 
was  wont  to  store  her   Passover  preserves  and  hide  her 
savings.     The  western  half,  however,  was  allotted  to  Reb 
Haskel,  the  much-branched   beadle  of  the  congregation, 
who  also  acted  as  "  Dardekemelamed",  or  instructor  of  chil- 
dren in  the  rudiments  of  Hebrew  and  religion.     The  bulk 
of  his  residence  consisted  in  a  low-windowed  apartment, 
which  served  also  as  schoolroom  for  some  two-score  chil- 
dren.    The  latter  were  arrayed  along  the  wall,  seated  on 
stools  or  on  the  floor.     Little  Adolph's  favorite  spot  was 
under  the  table,  where  oft  he  sat  with  his  mates  and  mused 
on  future  glories,  counting  on  his  fingers  the  years  that 
must  pass  ere  he  became  a  full-fledged  Jew,  Bar-Mitswa^ 


Xlll 


and  might  enjoy  the  grown-man's  right  to  wind  the  Tefilin 
round  arm  and  brow.  The  hall  connecting  the  two  dwell- 
ings harbored  the  public  scales,  on  which  R.  Jossel  used  to 
weigh  the  wool  the  Polish  nobles  were  selling  to  the  Jews. 
Behind  the  house,  in  fine,  there  stretched  a  vast  orchard, 
cultivated  jointly  by  the  two  families  and  separated  by  a 
ditch  from  the  huge  meadow  of  the  local  count. 

The  squabbles  and  loquacious  encounters  that  took 
place  on  occasion  between  the  wives  of  the  two  communal 
dignitaries,  the  precentor  and  the  beadle-schoolmaster,  and 
ruffled  the  halcyon  atmosphere  of  the  vicinity,  we  shall 
not  pause  to  divulge.  We  must  hasten  on  to  the  gloomy 
event  that  turned  the  whole  town  to  mourning,  that  called 
truce  for  a  while  to  all  petty  brawls  and  scuffles,  and  left 
the  memory  of  every  witness  aghast  for  many  a  day.  It 
was  when  in  the  year  1849  the  cholera  invaded  the  town, 
and  as  a  ferocious  beast  hurled  itself  upon  the  panic- 
stricken  inhabitants.  Terror,  superstition,  and  stupid 
medication,  all  served  to  increase  calamity  and  confusion 
among  the  hapless  victims.  From  every 
The  Cholera  window  issued  groans  and  wailing ;  there 
Nuptials.  was  scarce  a  house  where  there  was  not  one 

dead.  At  that  hour  of  common  distress  the 
whole  town  was  tied  together  by  nature's  sable  bands,  and 
a  wave  of  sympathy  swelled  through  all  breasts.  Then 
many  a  heart  was  truly  uncovered,  and  many  a  soul 
dropped  the  veil  of  convention,  and  many  an  unforeseen 
deed  of  heroism  and  love  surely  was  done.  But  when 
naught  seemed  to  avail  and,  spite  prayer  and  charity, 
children  and  adults  continued  to  be  sucked  into  the 
insatiable  maw  of  the  epidemic,  a  desperate  man,  versed 
in  the  time-honored  creed  of  the  common  people,  counseled 
recourse  to  a  charity  marriage.  Popular  belief  had  it, 
namely,  that  the  marriage  of  some  impecunious  couple 
arranged  by  the  dwellers  of  an  afflicted  town,  would  serve 


XIV 


to  halt  the  dread  arm  of  Death.  Such  religious  nuptials, 
celebrated  most  auspiciously  at  the  cemetery  nigh  some 
fresh-hewn  grave,  it  was  said,  often  had  stemmed  the  tide 
of  calamity.  The  suggestion  was  received  with  approval 
by  the  townsmen  gathered  in  the  market-place,  and  what 
with  gifts  of  money  from  men  of  wealth  and  culinary 
offerings  from  pious  women  and  all  kinds  of  counsel  from 
varied  sources,  a  wedding  forthwith  was  resolved  upon 
between  Refuel,  the  tailor's  apprentice,  and  Sprinze,  the 
capital,  albeit  oldish  and  ungainly,  cook.  The  date  for 
the  efficacious  event  having  been  set,  the  entire  community 
united  in  splendid  preparation  toward  it,  and  all  personal 
woes  and  desires  were  drowned  for  the  while  in  the  grand 
co-operative  endeavor  to  conquer  Death  by  a  large  deed 
of  communal  charity. 

The  wedding  feast,  which  was  held  in  fine  style, 
both  presents  a  picture  of  Jewish  life  unknown  to  the 
western  world  and  introduces  us  to  the  society  in  which 
Adolph  Moses  spent  his  early  years  and  caught  his  pri- 
mary, never-fading  inspirations.  In  fact,  he  was  himself, 
a  boy  of  nine,  present  at  the  repast,  and  when  many  years 
later  he  wrote  down  the  story  of  the  event,  the  memory  of 
the  guests  was  still  green  in  his  mind,  and  the  wedding 

dainties,  we  might  add,  still  luscious  in  his 
The  Wedding-  mouth.  Prominent  among  the  guests  was 
Quests.  Reb  Siel  the  Nagid,  or  Nabob,  proud  of  his 

place  and  title  as  the  richest  Jew  in  the 
province.  According  to  the  scholarly  standard  of  the 
time — which  was  the  chief  system  of  character  measure- 
ment— he  was  described  as  one  who  knew  a  little  of 
the  Bible,  less  of  the  commentaries,  and  nothing  at  all 
of  the  Talmud.  However,  he  was  possessed  of  rare  shrewd- 
ness and  mother-wit,  as  well  as  some  innate  lordliness.  A 
money-lender,  he  numbered  many  indolent  and  reckless 
noblemen  among  his  debtors,  who  frequently  settled  their 
accounts  by  transferring  to  him  portions  of  their  wooded 


XV 


estates.  "His  house,"  writes  Adolph  Moses,  "according 
to  my  conception  in  those  days,  was  a  fairy-palace.  It 
seemed  to  me  regal  in  its  fitments  :  there  were  cloths  on  the 
tables  even  on  week  days;  there  was  a  couch  in  'the  good 
room',  and  curtains  hung  on  the  windows.  A  large  orchard 
lay  behind  the  house,  stretching  almost  to  the  lake.  In 
winter,  R.  Siel  wore  the  finest  sables,  and  he  had  a  num- 
ber of  caps  of  the  same  fur  for  use  on  the  Sabbath.  He 
had  the  most  lovely  and  cultured  daughters  who  could 
read  High-German,  and  even  novels,  who  were  kindly  and 
gracious  to  the  poor,  so  much  so  that  when  a  beggar  was 
yelled  at  by  their  irate  sire  they  were  wont  to  hasten  to 
his  rescue  and  give  him  alms."  Beside  the  Nagid  sat  Reb 
IfTerels  Moshe,  the  tall,  broad-shouldered,  powerful  smug- 
gler, who  had  had  many  a  scuffle  with  the  frontier-guards, 
whose  house  was  full  of  burying-holes  and  had  suffered 
repeated  raids  at  the  hands  of  armed  officials  of  the  cus- 
tom-house. The  latter  at  times  found  forbidden  goods  and 
led  the  handcuffed  smuggler  away  from  his  sobbing  family ; 
but  usually  the  raiders  could  unearth  nothing,  seeing  that 
most  of  them  were  in  the  pay  of  the  bold  tradesman. 
And  yet,  despite  his  illegitimate  business  and  his  rude 

face  and  harsh  voice,  the  audacious  smuggler 
Smuggler  and  possessed  a  tender  heart,  was  ever  charitable 
Samaritan.  and  helpful,  and  during  the  dominance  of 

the  plague  he  ministered  to  the  sick  with 
unmatched  devotion  and  intrepidity.  Moreover,  it  was 
he  that  had  suggested  the  charity  marriage  and  gave 
a  good  round  sum,  as  well  as  cloth  for  the  groom's 
coat,  toward  its  consummation. 

Among  those  present  at  the  repast  were  also:  the  inso- 
lent and  hard-hearted  Lemmels,  noted  for  their  red  hair, 
which  legend  traced  back  to  a  curse  some  rabbi  of  old, 
wronged  by  one  of  their  ancestors,  in  his  dying  hour  had 
lodged  upon  the  family ;  Reb  Melech,  the  Nagid's  son-in- 
law,  versed  in  the  Talmud,  but  crafty  and  shrewd,  with  a 


XVI 

goat's  beard  which  he  never  ceased  twirling  between  the 
thumb  and  the  index  of  his  right  hand ;  the  rabbi's  step- 
son, Duved — a  conceited  fop,  an  idler  and  parasite  owning  a 
venomous  scoffing  tongue,  who,  though  an  ignoramus, 
deemed  himself  cultured  because  he  violated  some  trivial 

traditional  customs,  wore  high  heels,  and 
A  Fop  and  a  never  walked  without  a  cane,  who,  for  his 
Pretender.  obscene  talk,  was  dreaded  and  despised  by 

most  women,  and  whose  contribution  to  the 
marriage  was  a  pair  of  new  boots  worn  but  three  times,  with 
the  hope  that  they  would  not  prove  too  small  for  the  un- 
known beneficiary.  The  rabbi's  son-in-law,  Reb  Yakev,  was 
there  also :  a  veritable  whipper-snapper ;  a  superficial  tal- 
mudist  who  played  the  great  scholar;  looked  upon  himself 
as  a  poet,  because  occasionally  he  made  Hebrew  rhymes, 
but  more  often  recited  poems  out  of  rare  volumes  as  his 
own  productions;  likewise,  considered  himself  a  philoso- 
pher, because  he  could  decipher  the  lighter  portions  of 
Maimuni's  "Guide  of  the  Perplexed;"  withal,  a  sweetish, 
eely  individual,  currying  favor  with  the  rich,  generous 
in  words  but  niggardly  of  money  to  the  poor,  a  usurer 
popular  with  the  noblemen  because  he  spoke  their  language 
fluently  and  always  appeared  well-groomed  and  in  glitter- 
ingly  blackened  boots. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  feast  was  attended  by  a  large 
number  of  truly  devout  men,  idealists  of  the  purest  stamp, 
men  of  learning  and  piety,  to  say  nothing  of  the  godly 
and  benevolent  women  who  many  a  day  and  night  had 
toiled  to  make  the  wedding  a  joyful  occasion  and 
now  were  enjoying  it  in  their  own  modest  way  and 
place.  Above  all,  we  must  name  Reb  Sruel  (Israel)  the 

Marshalik,  the  Wedding-Bard,  the  coaxer  of 
The  Wedding-  tears,  the  creator  of  merriment,  the  player 
Bard.  whose  instrument  was  the  heart  of  man. 

His  powers  were  manifold  and  far-famed : 
speaking  before  the  enveiling  of  the  bride,  his  pathetic 


XV11 

rhymes,  blending,  as  they  did,  a  weird  chant  and  moan, 
so  affected  the  hearts  of  the  women  that  wellnigh  they 
passed  away  for  woe  and  tears;  at  night,  however,  when 
during  the  merry  feast  he  stood  upon  the  table  and 
called  out  the  wedding-gifts  and  the  names  of  their 
donors,  none  could  keep  from  laughter:  then  his  jokes  flew 
like  rockets,  in  limping  rhymes  he  besang  bride  and  groom 
and  their  kith  and  kin,  as  well  as  all  the  grandees  seated 
round  the  board ;  upon  the  rich  miser  he  poured  the  vials  of 
scorn,  was  none  too  timid  to  allude  to  the  failings  of  the  rabbi 
and  his  clerical  associates,  while  the  frailties  of  the  women 
and  of  the  stutterer  Kleuske,  an  ignorant  and  insolent 
moneybags,  formed  his  unfailing  fount  of  wit  and  satire. 
Equally  noteworthy  was  Yankel  Lomser,  the  tall  scrimp- 
bearded  leader  of  the  band,  with  big  black  eyes  out  of 

which  the  fiery  soul  of  music  seemed  to 
A  Born  stare,  though  their  owner  could  not  read  a 

Virtuoso.  note.     To  him,  as  to  that  other  Jacques  in 

Dr.  Van  Dyke's  story,  music  was  life's  ruling 
passion :  as  holy  as  the  Holy  Law,  a  divine  gift  designed 
to  brighten  the  sad  hearts  of  Israel  languishing  in  exile,  a 
power  by  which  he  felt  related  to  David,  the  royal  minstrel 
of  old.  He  was  the  musical  genius  of  the  neighborhood, 
where  people  were  accustomed  to  comment  that  under  his 
magic  hand  you  could  hear  the  violin  speak  and  weep 
and  moan  in  a  human  voice.  When  some  years  later  he 
died,  it  was  rumored  that  he  had  been  summoned  from 
earth  to  the  choir  of  the  saints  above,  to  play  before  the 
throne  of  God.  But,  above  all,  there  was  in  the  assem- 
blage R.  Israel  Baruch,  an  incarnation  of  the  finest  Jewish 
qualities,  in  whose  portraiture,  albeit  idealized,  we  have 
good  ground  to  think  that  Dr.  Moses  drew  the  features  of 
his  own  father,  whom,  by  the  way,  he  never  named  save 
with  profoundest  reverence,  describing  him  as  the  saint- 
liest  man  he  ever  knew. 

Israel    Baruch — if  we   may    copy  more   minutely   Dr. 
Moses's  picture  of  that  ideal  character — was  tall  and  slender, 


XVI 11 

with  delicate,  spirituel,  and  nobly-formed 
Israel  Baruch:  features.  His  big  brown  eyes  were  of  rare 
Scholar,  beauty,  beaming,  as  he  spoke,  with  a  won- 

Preacher,  and  drous  lustre  and  charm.  On  his  lofty  brow 
Saint.  the  thinker's  majesty  sat  enthroned.  His 

hair  was  brown  and  the  beard  of  a  reddish 
tinge.  After  the  banquet,  the  rabbi  and  several  worthies 
having  spoken,  some  friendly  voice  called  to  R.  Israel 
Baruch  athwart  the  table,  spurringly:  "Come  now,  Reb 
Isruel  Burech ;  give  us  some  Torah !"  At  first  he  declined 
out  of  modesty,  but  finally  had  to  yield  to  the  importunity 
of  the  assemblage.  At  the  outset,  then,  he  spoke  for  the 
benefit  of  the  scholars  present,  discoursing  keenly  on  the 
Halacha,  the  legalistic  portion  of  the  Talmud.  He  startled 
and  enraptured  his  hearers  by  the  eagle  flights  of  his 
thought,  by  the  acuteness  and  the  amplitude  of  his  dialec- 
tic. Not  after  the  errant,  frantic  fashion  of  the  Polish 
rabbis,  but  in  the  terse,  clear,  logical  style  of  the  Lithu- 
anian sages  he  handled  the  talmudic  problems.  Moreover, 
having  paid  the  compliment  of  priority  to  Harifuth — the 
sharp,  juridic  themes,  which  scholars  alone  could  follow, 
he  turned  to  Maggiduth — the  lighter  homiletic  subjects, 
for  the  sake  of  the  humbler  folk.  Like  honey  the  words 
now  flowed  from  his  lips.  Richer  and  ever  richer  speech 
streamed  from  the  deep  and  quick  source  of  his  soul. 
With  eyes  aflame  and  a  burning  tongue  he  spoke  of  God 
and  His  boundless  love,  he  spoke  of  the  holy  duties  which, 
though  in  exile  and  spite  suffering  and  persecution,  the 
Jews  were  called  on  to  fulfill  in  order  to  glorify  the  Name 
of  the  Eternal  in  the  eyes  of  all  men.  All  that  were 
there,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned  and  the  simple, 
were  deeply  moved.  With  bated  breath  they  listened, 
feeling  in  the  depths  of  their  souls  that  a  great  and  noble 
heart  was  speaking  to  their  hearts.  "And  as  for  me," 
writes  Adolph  Moses,  "who  standing  behind  my  grand- 
father's chair  harkened  to  the  orator's  kindling  words  and 


XIX 


shared  in  the  deep  excitation  of  the  spirits, 
The  Power  of  there  dawned  upon  me  for  the  first  time  the 
Oratory.  vision  of  the  might  of  eloquence  and  of  the 

dominion  of  the  higher  spirits  over  the  souls 
of  men."  While  he  spoke,  numerous  women  crowded 
round  the  door  of  the  tent  in  which  the  men  were  feasting 
and  listened  attentively.  None  might  describe  the  emo- 
tion of  the  speaker's  wife,  who,  with  cheeks  crimsoned, 
stood  at  the  entrance  and,  love  and  pride  glowing  in  her 
eyes,  beheld  her  gloriously  gifted  spouse.  Thrilled  by 
his  triumph,  the  young  and  fair  woman  deemed  the 
laurels  of  such  a  moment  ample  pay  for  all  the  cares  and 
pains  and  burdens  of  life,  and  inwardly  did  vow  to  teach 
her  sons  to  emulate  their  sire  and  follow  in  his  path  of 
virtue.  For,  not  only  learned  was  her  husband,  not  only 
versed  in  both  talmudic  and  philosophic  lore,  but  also  he 
was  a  man  of  purest  heart,  capable  of  the  greatest  self-sac- 
rifice, and  most  tender  towards  the  poor  and  the  suffering. 
"One  of  those  spirits  by  the  grace  of  God  was  he,  who 
feeling  the  pangs  and  the  misery  of  mankind  and  enduring 
great  agony  in  their  own  hearts,  strive  restlessly  and  with 
ardent  yearning  after  the  good  and  the  true,  and,  disdain- 
ing the  woes  of  the  earth,  build  up  a  better  world  in  the 
realm  of  the  ideal."  When  Israel  Baruch  made  an  end  of 
speech,  there  was  a  rustle  of  approval  everywhere,  and 
"Yasher  Koah"  it  rang  through  the  tent,  to-wit:  "God 
increase  thy  strength!" — the  ancient  Jewish  substitute 
for  the  hollow  noises  of  applause.  The  old  rabbi  of  the 
community,  however,  intensely  affected,  with  a  venerable 
slowness  rose  from  his  seat  and  holding  out  his  aged  hand 
to  the  devout  and  wise  orator  uttered  the  old  blessing: 
"  May  there  be  many  like  thee  in  Israel ! " 

I  shall  not  apologize  for  giving  so  much  space  to 
both  the  charity  wedding  and  its  prominent  guests,  seeing 
that  they  have  disclosed  to  us  to  some  degree  the  early 
surroundings  of  Adolph  Moses.  I  can  not  leave  the 


XX 


incident,  however,  without  deploring-  the  fact  that  the 
pious  scheme  proved  a  hope  deferred.  The  plague  was  not 
stopped,  and  was  yet  to  bring  a  deep  and  unforgetable 
sorrow  to  young  Moses.  His  mother  was  attacked  by  the 

disease,  though  she  made  a  brave  and  win- 
The  Death  of  ning  fight  against  it ;  but  tragic  was  the  fate 
His  Sister.  of  his  little  sister,  Sarah  Vogelche,  whom 

the  ravaging  plague  seized  while  she  was 
at  play  with  her  comrades  in  the  big  meadow,  and  devoured 
in  a  day.  "  Unforgetable  to  me  is  that  sad  morning  in  July 
one-and-thirty  years  ago  when  I  stepped  from  my  grand- 
parents' sleeping-chamber  into  the  family  hall  and  beheld 
my  dear  little  sister  Sarah  Vogelche  lying  on  the  floor,  her 
feet  towards  the  door,  and  covered  with  the  black  cere- 
ment!" It  betokened  Dr.  Moses's  tenderness  and  depth 
of  affection  that  he  could  never  forget  the  little  sister 
that  died  as  a  child,  and  it  was  the  memory  of  her  play 
and  sudden  death  that  moved  him  to  write  the  story  of  the 
plague  and  the  queer  marriage  it  had  brought  about* 

Shortly  after  that  event,  R.  Israel  Baruch,  forced  by 
reverses,  left  the  home  of  his  father-in-law  and  moved  to  San- 
tomishel,  in  the  province  of  Posen,  where  he  occupied  the 
rabbinic  chair  for  a  number  of  years.  A  similar  position  he 
held  later  on  at  Dobrzyca,  where  his  devoted  son  paid  him  a 
visit  in  the  year  1892,  and  where  he  died  on  the  6th  day  of 
May,  1898,  to  be  survived  only  two  years  by  his  wife.  At 
Santomishel,  Adolph  Moses  continued  his  education  until 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  commonly  looked  upon  as  a 

boy  of  such  particular  promise  as  merited  the 
The  Quest  of  special  talmudic  training  which  could  be 
Knowledge.  secured  nowhere  save  at  the  Polish  seats  of 

learning,  the  far-famed  yeshiboth.  For  that 
purpose  he  recrossed  the  frontier,  and  three  years,  we  are 
told,  he  devoted  to  the  sacred  toil,  exhibiting  all  the 

*  Cp.  Zeitgeist,  vol.  1,  pp.  394  et  seq. 


XXI 

patience  and  the  capacity  for  struggle  and  the  hardi- 
hood which  have  made  the  Jewish  student  in  Poland,  the 
Bahur,  famous.  When  he  came  home,  he  was  sent  to 
Schrimm  and  Militsch  in  pursuit  of  secular  studies. 
After  three  years  of  close  application,  he  was  prepared  to 
enter  both  the  Rabbinical  Seminary  and  the  university  at 
Breslau.  At  both  schools  ample  opportunity  was  offered 
to  his  intellectual  avidity  as  well  as  his  indefatigable  zeal : 
he  attended  lectures  on  history,  philosophy,  and  philology, 
subjects  that  remained  his  favorites  to  the  very  end.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  what  an  intoxication  the  new  environ- 
ment :  university  lectures,  intercourse  with  men  of  broad 
culture,  the  intellectual  atmosphere  :  must  have  meant  to  the 
provincial  disciple  of  the  wise.  In  a  sense,  the  experience 
of  the  individual  young  Jew,  thirsting  for  knowledge  and 
suddenly  transported  to  the  great  common  founts  of  wisdom, 
was  analogous  to  that  of  the  whole  Jewish  community  that 

in  the  nineteenth  century  emerged  from  the 
The  New  confines  of  the  ghetto  into  the  wide  world  of 

Light.  western  culture.     lyike  many  another  youth, 

reared  amid  the  old  Jewish  traditions,  Adolph 
Moses,  brought  to  Breslau  an  alert  mind,  a  heart  aflame 
with  intellectual  ambition,  a  soul  swayed  by  a  lofty, 
vague,  and  variegated  ideality.  Ideality,  grand,  impas- 
sioned, indefinable :  this  is  the  key  to  the  nature  of  num- 
berless young  Jews  who  these  many  years  have  been 
rushing  from  the  old  isolated  quarters  of  Israel  toward  the 
vast,  roaring  sea  of  modern  civilization,  swelling  its 
waves  with  their  own  yearnings  and  powers,  and  causing 
us  all  to  ask  whether  needs  they  must  be  swallowed  by  the 
great  universal  ocean  or  may  flow  on  through  it  as  a  dis- 
tinct unabsorbable  stream. 

To  such  abstract  idealism  must  be  attributed  some 
of  Adolph  Moses's  most  unique  experiences — his  enlist- 
ment in  two  foreign  armies  in  order  to  fight  for  freedom. 
Scarcely  had  he  had  time  to  orient  himself  in  his  new 


XX11 


world  and  readjust  his  mental  life,  than  the  cause  of 
liberty  in  Italy  began  to  stir  the  senses  of  the  young 
enthusiasts  throughout  Europe.  The  visionary  student 
from  Santomishel,  fired  by  a  noble  zeal,  resolved  to 
follow  the  flag  of  Garibaldi.  In  an  article  published 
some  twenty  years  later  in  the  Zeitgeist,  he  describes, 
with  a  fine  touch  of  humor,  how  in  1859  he  left 
Breslau  and  went  to  join  the  patriots  of  Italy,  with  no 
companion  save  his  walking-stick,  which  though  it  tra- 
versed with  him  some  of  the  world's  most  inspiring  scenes 
remained  as  dumb  and  dull  as  ever,  resembling  in  that 
regard  certain  human  travelers.  "Happy,  impetuous, 
enviable,  fanciful  youth,"  he  exclaims  in  his  habitual 
introspective  manner,  betraying  a  bit  of  tender  regret, 
"  when  for  the  sake  of  an  idea,  out  of  sheer  desire  to  take 

part  in  a  work  of  historic  moment,  I  stole 
Soldier  of  away  from  Breslau,  with  no  other  comrade 

Freedom.  save  my  stick,  without  means  or  knowledge 

of  the  language,  wandered  on  foot  from 
the  Lake  of  Constance  to  the  southward,  and  at  Genoa 
besought  Dr.  Betrani,  Garibaldi's  right  hand,  with  tears 
in  my  eyes,  not  to  reject  me,  but  graciously  to  enter 
my  name  on  the  list  of  future  heroes!"  At  Naples, 
whither  he  was  sent  with  a  number  of  similar  enthusiastic 
recruits,  he  was  given  the  military  uniform,  "the  livery  of 
freedom,"  as  well  as  an  old  rusty  musket  and  a  cartridge- 
pouch  with  real  cartridges  inside.  Thus,  "the  erstwhile 
Bahur,  but  lately  a  student  at  the  Rabbinical  Seminary 
now  was  a  champion  of  liberty,  with  the  cross  of  Savoy  at 
the  baldric,  the  formidable  gun  on  the  shoulder."  The 
actual  transition,  however,  of  the  scholar  into  the  soldier 
was  much  more  checkered :  there  was  training  and  serving 
at  various  outlandish  places,  at  Aversa,  Santa  Maria,  Sant' 
Angelo,  Caserta,  and  Capua,  where  the  metamorphosed  rab- 
binic aspirant  was  obliged  to  endure  many  a  jolt  and  blow 
and  heathen  oath  ere  he  knew  how  to  wield  his  gun  and 


XX111 

lift  his  limbs.  But  what  are  stumbling-blocks,  however 
numerous,  to  the  knight  of  an  idea?  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that  the  idea  conquered  in  this  case  also,  the  rabbinic 
devotee  of  Garibaldi  coming  forth  from  the  season's  cam- 
paign crowned  with  laurels,  to-wit,  a  corporal's  title.  The 
return  march  to  Breslau  then  set  in,  a  veritable  triumphal 
procession,  we  may  be  sure,  for  his  throbbing,  jubilant, 
ardent  soul.  There  was  more  leisure  now,  a  broader 
capacity  for  enjoying  the  ravishing  Italian  sights,  the  nerv- 
ous haste  to  get  to  the  field  of  battle  having  passed  away : 
he  lingered  a  while  amid  the  undying  charms  of  Naples, 
drank  in  the  snowy  grandeur  of  the  Alps,  visited  the  art 
galleries  at  Genoa  and  Milan,  and  bathed  his  soul  in  the 
enchanting  loveliness  of  the  lakes.  The  youthful  idealist, 
thus,  wound  up  his  term  of  soldiery  with  several  inspiring 
lessons  in  the  love  of  Nature  and  Art,  the  first  of  the  sort 
he  had  ever  had.  "My  mind  then  opened  for  the  first 
time  to  the  beauty  of  art.  In  Italy  and  in  Switzerland  I 
acquired  a  sixth  sense,  the  open  understanding,  the  imme- 
diate appreciation  of  the  beauties  that  are  in  Nature." 

But,  alas!  the  conquering  hero,  upon  his  return  to  Breslau, 
was  met  with  nothing  so  little  as  the  honor  and  the  applause 
he  had  anticipated.  Here  was  a  champion  of  freedom,  a 
stalwart  knight  home  from  foreign  fields ;  but,  whether  his 
motives  were  misread  or  his  cause  ^did  not  appeal,  certain 
it  is  that  by  his  old  associates  he  was  welcomed  home  as 
an  erratic  individual  rather  than  a  hero  to  be  admired.  The 
whole  incident  was  put  down  as  quixotic.  To  Moses — 
always  a  combination  of  power  and  sensitiveness,  ready 
to  battle  for  an  idea,  yet  deeply  sensible  to  public 
opinion — this  was  a  period  of  bitterness  and  shame.  He 
felt  himself  weighted  down  by  the  worst  of  curses, 
ridiculousness.  He  felt  himself  derided,  maltreated,  for- 
saken. There  were  just  three  men  whose  kindness  in  those 
sad  days  he  never  forgot:  the  immortal  Abraham  Geiger, 
his  magnanimous  master,  who  took  his  part  and  supported 


XXIV 

him  both  morally  and  materially ;  Hermann 
Friends  in  Cohen,  now  professor  of  philosophy  at  Mar- 

Need,  burg,  his  fellow-student  and  faithful  compan- 

ion, who  shielded  and  comforted  him;  and 
Isaac  Bamberger,  afterwards  rabbi  at  Konigsberg,  with 
whom  he  studied  Talmud  and  Italian  and  from  whom 
he  received  sympathy  and  appreciation — the  two  gifts 
Adolph  Moses  always  required  and  prized  most.  Neverthe- 
less, the  unpleasant  upshot  of  his  military  adventure  seems 
to  have  affected  very  little  his  attitude  towards  champions 
of  freedom :  for,  in  the  year  1863,  during  the  Polish  upris- 
ing, what  should  Garibaldi's  young  corporal  do  but  turn  his 
back  upon  Talmud  and  theology  and  hazard  his  life  anew 
in  the  name  of  Liberty !  However,  luck  was  against  him ; 
he  was  soon  captured  by  the  Russians  and  put  in  prison 
at  Warsaw,  where  he  had  occasion  to  gain  personal 
knowledge  of  those  aspects  of  Russian  bar- 
Russian  barity  which  he  has  depicted  in  his  story 
Experiences.  "Luser  the  Watchmaker."  Thanks  to  the 
Prussian  consul,  he  was  released  on  parole 
and  sent  back  to  his  studies.  The  present  homecoming,  no 
doubt,  was  even  less  triumphal  than  the  previous  one, 
especially  since  the  cause  of  Poland  was  not  popular  in 
Breslau.  At  any  rate,  this  was  the  last  adventurous  incident 
that  interrupted  his  studious  and  scholarly  life. 

The  story  of  the  interval  between  this  event  and  his 
etnbarkment  for  the  United  States,  may  be  told  briefly.  It 
comprised  several  years  of  intellectual  growth,  of  profit- 
able and  delightful  intercourse  with  men  of  light  and 
leading,  of  preparation  for  a  noble  life-work.  As  Abraham 
Geiger  meanwhile,  in  the  year  1863,  had  gone  to  Frankfort- 
on-the-Main,  Moses  followed  him  thither,  to  continue 
under  the  influence  of  that  giant  mind — the  Isaiah  of 
Reform  Judaism.  Subsequently,  he  spent  two  years  at  the 
University  of  Vienna,  coming  in  contact  frequently  with 
Jellinek,  the  scholar-preacher,  and  with  Dr.  Giidemann. 


XXV 

Necessity  finally  forced  him  to  give  up  the 
Learning  and  claustral  pleasures  of  study  and  pure  ideal- 
Teaching,  ism  and  to  seek  some  practical  occupation. 

He  accepted  a  position  as  teacher  at  a  noted 
educational  institute  at  Seegnitz,  in  Bavaria,  where  he 
worked  from  the  year  1868  to  1870,  amid  most  pleasant 
surroundings  and  within  a  stone-shot  from  some  of  the 
chief  centers  of  German  culture.  It  was  thence  that, 
through  the  influence  of  some  American  friends,  he  was 
called  to  the  rabbinic  office  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 

In  that  cheerful  Southern  State  Dr.  Moses  passed 
eleven  years,  serving  only  over  a  year  at  his  first  post  and 
a  decade  at  Mobile.  It  was  a  period  of  great  moment  to 
him,  another  period  of  transition,  crowded  with  work  and 
attended  by  an  aftermath  of  delicious  memories  to  the  very 
last.  We  have  seen  what  manner  of  culture  and  traditions 
he  brought  from  the  eastern  shores  of  the  ocean:  the 
impressions  and  the  training  of  his  childhood,  the  memories 

of  the  various  characters  that  had  composed 
A  Decade  in  his  unique  early  world,  the  talmudic  dis- 
Alabama.  cipline  at  the  Polish  yeshiba,  and  the  broader 

culture,  as  well  as  the  experience,  garnered 
during  his  eventful  student  years.  With  all  that  was  coupled 
an  uncommon  power  of  concentration  and  industry,  as  well 
as  accessibility  to  newiknowledge.  Though  he  was  not  long 
in  impressing  his  congregation  with  his  eloquence  and  depth 
of  thought,  his  eyes  were  turned  toward  the  future.  He  was 
the  student  still ;  perfectibility  was  his  dearest  dogma.  A 
common  sight  it  was  to  observe  him  on  highways  and 
byways  "transported  and  rapt  in  secret  studies."  While 
German  was  the  language  at  that  time  commonly  used  by 
the  Jewish  preachers  in  America,  he  realized  at  once,  with 
Isaac  M.  Wise,  that  the  future  of  the  Jewish  pulpit  in  this 
country  was  bound  up  with  the  English  tongue.  To  the 
mastery  of  the  latter,  as  well  as  to  the  improvement  of  his 
oratory,  he  devoted  himself,  we  are  told,  with  the  determi- 


XXVI 

nation  of  a  Demosthenes.  The  English  classics  became 
his  companions,  especially  Shakespeare  who  was  his  benign 
master,  whose  words  he  memorized  copiously,  and  on  whose 
foremost  dramas  he  preached  a  series  of  sermons  later  on. 
Also,  he  had  enough  leisure  at  Mobile  to  continue  his 
purely  scientific  studies,  as  a  result  of  which  he  wrote,  in 
German,  a  number  of  articles,  on  anthropology  and  folk- 
lore. Most  of  the  latter  were  published  in  the  Zeitgeist, 
a  weekly  journal  he  edited,  from  the  year  1880  to  1882,  in 
conjunction  with  his  brother,  Rabbi  Isaac  S.  Moses,  and  Dr. 
Emil  G.  Hirsch.  In  the  same  periodical  appeared,  likewise, 
his  partly  autobiographic  story  "Luser  Seigermacher " 
(Englished  by  Mrs.  A.  deV.  Chandron,  as  "Luser  the 
Watchmaker,  an  Episode  of  .the  Polish  Revolution")  and 
his  other  reminiscences.  On  the  agth  day  of  November, 
1876,  he  married  Miss  Emma  Isaacs,  in  whom  for  the  rest 
of  his  life  he  found  a  genuine  and  self-sacrificing  helpmeet. 
In  sum,  he  had  good  cause  for  counting  the  years  spent  at 
Mobile  among  the  happiest  he  knew. 

It  is  impossible  to  depict  in  detail  the  process  of  evo- 
lution through  which  the  mind  of  Adolph  Moses  passed. 
We  do  not  know  to  what  degree  he  had  declined  from  the 
traditional  view  of  Judaism  before  reaching  this  country — 
the  new  Land  of  Promise  so  glowingly,  prophetically, 
extolled  by  the  dying  Esther  in  "Luser  the  Watchmaker." 
Unfortunately,  the  habit  of  extemporaneous  preaching 
adhered  to  by  Dr.  Moses  in  the  early  years  of  his  ministry, 

has  left  us  without  written  records  of  his 
Silent  Growth,  religious  views  during  that  period.  But  it 

can  not  surprise  us  if  after  a  lapse  of  some 
years — years,  we  are  tempted  to  say,  spent  in  the  holy  of 
holies  of  study,  within  the  veil  of  research  and  devout 
inquiry — the  man  who  had  drunk  at  the  fount  of 
Abraham  Geiger,  should  be  found  in  the  camp  of  radical 
rabbis.  The  decade  spent  at  Mobile,  Moses  applied  to  a 
survey  of  the  Jewish  problem  in  the  United  States,  to  a 


XXV11 

scrutiny  of  the  essence  of  his  religion,  and  to  the  ascertain- 
ment of  the  role  which  the  latter  might  gain  in  the 
modern  interplay  of  spiritual  forces.  Into  his  solution  of 
those  grave  questions  both  his  carefully  cultivated  scholar- 
ship and  his  glowing  imagination,  Law  and  Vision, 
Torah  and  Hazon,  the  two  sources,  as  Professor  Marti 
has  pointed  out,  of  Divine  instruction  in  Israel :  entered  as 
determining  factors.  And  when,  as  member  of  the  edi- 
torial staff  of  the  Zeitgeist,  he  began  to  contribute  regularly 
towards  the  elucidation  of  the  Jewish  problems,  he  showed 

not  only  a  supply  of  clear  and  firm  con- 
Scholar  and  victions,  but  also  readiness  to  state  his  views 
Seer.  with  unwonted  vigor  and  dauntlessness.  His 

position  as  champion  of  a  lofty  and  liberal 
Judaism  could  not  be  mistaken,  his  style  possessed  the 
power  of  attraction,  and  he  was  at  once  recognized  as 
one  of  the  foremost  figures  in  the  arena. 

Times  change  swiftly  in  our  land,  and  how  we  change 
with  them !  When  we  allude  to  old  conditions,  to  problems 
of  the  past — phrases  in  the  Old  World  big  with  the  asso- 
ciations of  centuries — we  have  in  mind  things  that  held 
the  stage  some  ten,  twenty,  or,  by  reason  of  strength,  thirty 
years  ago.  Questions  that  but  a  decade  since  were  the 
sovereign  monarchs  of  rabbinic  minds,  and  divided  all 

Israel  into  hostile  camps,  today  lie  ghost- 
The  Problems  less  on  the  ground,  tokens  to  the  silent  art 
of  the  Age.  Time  has  of  bringing  low  the  lofty.  A  score 

of  years  have  taught  many  a  lip  to  frame  the 
shibboleths  which  erstwhile  forbiddingly  held  the  fords  in 
Israel,  severing  the  Gileadites  from  Ephraim,  the  reform 
"fugitives"  from  the  orthodox.  Conditions  that  in  the 
seventies  and  the  eighties  of  the  last  century  taxed  all  the 
ingenuity  of  our  public  leaders,  and  vexatious  problems 
such  as  set  them  by  the  ears,  to  the  children  of  today 
sound  like  fables  of  the  long  ago.  No  serious  person 


XXV111 


would  dream  to  turn  into  an  issue  now  any  of  the  topics  that 
were  most  fertile  themes  of  controversy  when  Dr.  Moses 
entered  the  field.  His  contributions  to  the  Zeitgeist,  there- 
fore, are  of  paramount  value  both  as  the  testimony  of 
one  who  took  a  leading  part  in  the  shaping  of  events  and 
as  a  portrayal  of  what  one  might  style  a  past  age. 

Particular  interest  abides  in  a  series  of  articles  sug- 
gested by  a  question  propounded  in  that  periodical  by  a 
noted  Jew,  as  to  the  immediate  duties  of  the  rabbi.  Dr. 
Moses  in  his  reply,  first  of  all,  points  out  the  differences 
between  the  ideal  rabbi  of  former  days,  still  surviving  in 

"Half- Asia  and  Asia" — the  judge  of  proper 
The  Rabbi:  and  improper  diet,  the  expert  examiner  of 
Old  and  New.  eatable  fowl  and  beast,  the  preceptor  of 

housewives  in  the  religion  of  kitchen  and 
Passover  pots,  the  talmudic  chauvinist,  the  incarnation  of 
unworldliness,  of  whom  no  higher  praise  could  be  sung  than 
that  he  could  not  tell  one  coin  from  another — and  the  ideal 
rabbi  in  this  country,  where  the  Jewish  minister  is  expected 
to  possess  a*side  from  talmudic  scholarship  a  large  measure 
of  general  culture,  where  a  rabbi  never  is  interviewed  in 
regard  to  the  old  laws  of  diet  or  divorce  (unless  it  be  by 
an  enterprising  newspaper  reporter  occasionally),  and  where 
a  rabbi  unable  to  distinguish  a  five-dollar  bill  from  a  ten 
would  be  placed  under  a  guardian.  Having  pointed  out  in 
some  such  way  this  radical  difference,  he  proceeds  to  indicate 
those  characteristics  of  the  old  rabbi  which  his  modern  suc- 
cessor should  emulate.  The  old  rabbi's  foremost  duty  was  to 
live  an  ideal  personal  life,  ever  to  serve  as  an  impeccable 
embodiment  of  the  piety  and  the  religion  he  represented. 
And  upon  this  cardinal  duty  Reform  Judaism  should  lay 
greatest  stress,  which  if  it  failed  to  do  "all  the  changes,  or, 
if  you  will,  all  the  progress  made  in  the  domain  of  Judaism 
in  civilized  lands  during  the  last  half-century,  were  to  be 
condemned  without  mercy."  The  genuine  leaders  of 
Reform  Judaism,  he  witnesses,  have  lived  up  to  this  idea, 


XXIX 


always  distinguishing  themselves  by  the  highest  ethical 
conduct  and  a  godly  life  in  the  spirit  of  the  prophets  and 
the  wise  men  of  Israel.  "To  the  writer,"  he 
Geiger  and  continues,  "it  was  granted  for  many  years  to 
Einhorn.  be  the  disciple  and  protege  of  the  sainted 

Abraham  Geiger.  My  lengthy  intercourse 
with  him  enables  me  to  bear  witness  that  Geiger  was  a 
man  of  boundless  benevolence  and  charity,  just,  truthful, 
and  amiable,  a  soul  free  from  guile  and  guise,  and  that  the 
pure  doctrine  he  preached  was  to  him  no  empty  sound  but 
a  vital  doctrine,  determining  his  actions  and  thoughts. 
The  most  inveterate  orthodox  even  who  may  have  cursed 
his  endeavors  on  behalf  of  reform,  did  not  deny  his  good- 
ness and  greatness  of  soul.  Similarly,  David  Einhorn,  the 
typical  creator  and  representative  of  American  Judaism,  by 
friend  and  foe  alike  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  blameless 
integrity,  of  wellnigh  antique  purity  of  morals  and  spirit- 
uality, and  from  his  adamantine  character,  his  sincerity  of 
conviction  showing  in  the  greatest  and  the  least  matters, 
issued  the  mighty  influence  which  his  life  and  work 
exercised  upon  the  development  of.  Judaism  in  America." 
Men  of  dubious  character  were  frequent  in 
False  the  Jewish  pulpit  at  the  time,  and  Dr.  Moses 

Prophets.  pinned  the  blame  largely  to  the  congrega- 

tions: "As  often  happens,  they  choose  as 
ministers  hardened  sinners,  unscrupulous  hypocrites,  men 
without  principle  and  character,  simply  because  the  latter 
have  good  mouths,  thresh  phrases  with  ease,  assault  Ortho- 
doxy with  insolent  scoffery,  and  in  hollow  sounds  lift 
Reform  to  the  skies." 

Having  emphasized  the  ethical  side  of  the  rabbi's  char- 
acter, he  demands  from  him  evidence  of  deep  faith  in  God. 
He  deprecates  the  preachers  of  the  day  in  whose  sermons 
God  is  mentioned  but  occasionally,  out  of  shere  deference, 
as  it  were,  playing  the  part  of  nothing  so  much  as  a  roi 
faineant:  they  speak  of  humanity,  progress,  freedom, 


XXX 


brotherhood,  development,  ideals,  all  of  which  is  very  good 
and  pretty,  but  where  is  Religion,  where  is  God?  "If  you 
ask  me,"  he  continues,  "What  do  you  mean  by  Religion? 
I  am  not  ashamed  to  show  myself  in  my  reply  as  a  very 

plain,  humble,  old-fashioned  individual.  By 
What  is  religion  I  mean  faith  in  a  living  omnisci- 

Religion?  ent,  all-seeing  God  to  whom  I  pray  not  out 

of  metaphysic  subtlety,  neither  in  order  to 
soothe  my  heart  with  an  unctious  emotionalism,  but  rather 
because  I  am  convinced  that  the  Creator  and  Guardian 
of  men  will  hear  and  heed  my  prayer.  By  religion  I 
mean  further  a  firm  faith  in  a  God  of  Revelation,  who 
has  shown  us  the  good  and  the  true,  has  disclosed  to  us 
His  doctrine  of  salvation,  His  laws,  by  the  spirit  of  the 
prophets  and  the  sages  of  humanity.  By  religion  I  mean 
the  inward  conviction  that  the  omniscient  God  knows  all 
our  deeds  and  the  hidden  secrets  of  our  soul,  a  joyous  trust 
in  His  aid  and  succour  while  we  are  in  misfortune  and 
sorrow,  and  a  sincere  sense  of  gratitude  for  all  His  good- 
ness and  love."  It  is  such  an  unsophisticated  conception 
of  religion  that  wellnigh  had  vanished  among  the  American 
rabbis  affected  by  the  contemporary  conflict  between 
Science  and  Religion.  Ere  the  rabbi  could  regain  his 
proper  influence  and  do  honor  to  Judaism,  he  must  revise 

his  opinions  and  steady  his  mind  on  the  old 
The  Rabbi  as  essentials  of  his  faith.  To  that  end,  he  must 
Scholar.  be  a  scholar.  As  no  functions  of  a  priestly 

or  redemptory  character  appertain  to  the 
work  of  the  Jewish  minister,  which  consists  rather  in  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  training  of  his  congregants,  he 
must  make  learning  his  chief  pursuit.  The  Jew  uncon- 
sciously respects  scholarship,  the  rabbi  always  has  been 
the  center  of  learning  to  his  community,  and  though  our 
ideals  of  culture  may  differ  from  those  held  by  Jews  in 
former  days  and  other  parts,  culture  alone,  in  the  highest 
sense,  will  secure  the  influence  of  the  rabbi.  Just  as  the 
Polish  rabbi  heads  the  talmudic  scholars  of  his  town,  his 


XXXI 

American  compeer  should  lead  the  aristocracy  of  intelli- 
gence. Unhappily,  the  demands  upon  our  rabbis  in  those 
days  were  of  such  a  variegated  and  laborious  sort  as  to  rob 
one  both  of  time  and  bent  for  scholarly  self-development. 
In  the  majority  of  towns,  namely,  they  were  expected  not 
only  to  preach  in  two  languages,  German 
The  Rabbi's  and  English — to  feed,  so  to  say,  the  confluent 
Tasks.  streams  of  two  generations — but  also  to  con- 

duct the  Divine  services,  to  teach,  with 
hardly  any  aid,  all  branches  at  the  religious  schools: 
Hebrew,  biblical  history,  and  religion,  and  in  some 
instances — mirabile  dictu — even  to  instruct  several  classes, 
often  numbering  from  seventy  to  eighty  scholars,  in  the 
German  language.  None  the  less,  Dr.  Moses  lays  stress  on 
the  unavoidable  duty  of  the  true  rabbi  to  perfect  himself 
in  knowledge  and  not  to  leave  the  Jewish  pulpit  in  this 
republic  to  the  mercy  of  ignorant  congregational  electors, 
likely  to  seize  upon  any  shrewd  beadle  or  sleek  butcher  or 
unctuous  cantor  who  had  learnt  to  mumble  sanctimonious 
cant  and  to  recite,  phonograph  fashion,  other  men's  elo- 
quence, and  turn  him  into  a  "reverend  doctor." 

Meanwhile,  the  ideal  of  scholarship  kept  on  growing 
before  the  mind  of  Dr.  Moses.  The  burden  of  the  modern 
Jew  weighed  upon  him  heavily :  the  desire  to  remain  faithful 
to  Israel,  to  cultivate  loyally  the  old  Jewish  knowledge,  to 
cherish  its  ideals,  and  at  the  same  time  to  seek  the  joys  of 

modern  culture,  to  absorb  the  ideals  of  the 
Hebraism  and  West,  to  be  in  touch  with  all  the  varied  and 
Hellenism.  bewitching  aspects  of  the  civilization  of  the 

day.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  has  the  modern 
aspiration  to  harmonize  the  ideals  of  the  Hebrews  and 
the  Hellenes  manifested  itself  with  such  frequency  and 
force  as  in  the  house  of  Israel.  And  amid  the  Jews 
this  passion  has  burned  long  ere  Mr.  Hugh  Black 
gave  it  embodiment  in  his  eloquent  essays  on  "Culture 


XXX 11 


and  Restraint,"  or  even  Matthew  Arnold  had  made  it 
a  literary  topic.  Not  to  speak  of  its  oldest  exhibitions, 
which  would  take  us  back  to  Philo  the  Neo-Platonist,  it 
flamed  up  anew,  as  I  have  hinted  above,  as  soon  as  the 
Jew  was  delivered  from  "the  ghetto's  plague,"  from  "the 
garb's  disgrace,"  in  Robert  Browning's  phrase,  and  was 
given  a  part  in  the  life  and  the  work  of  the  world.  Not 
one  of  the  Jews  of  the  nineteenth  century  who  became 
prominent  in  the  realms  of  art  or  literature,  but  underwent 
this  struggle :  the  harmonization  of  the  Jewish  heritage — 
the  feelings  and  ideas  drawn  from  the  deep  well  of  old 
Jewish  world-concepts — with  the  Hellenic  disposition  of 
prevalent  western  culture.  Mark  Antokolskoy,  a  prince 
among  contemporary  sculptors,  is  typical,  in  this  respect, 
of  a  great  many  modern  artists  and  poets  of  Jewish 
descent.  To  all,  even  though  formally  some  had  forsworn 

Judaism,  the  poor  mother,  it  was  no  easy 
An  Analogy.  task  to  symphonize  the  inherited,  conscious 

or  unconscious,  Judaic  ideas  with  those  that 
were  current  in  the  family  of  Art;  and  throughout 
their  work  the  two  strains  vibrate  together.  The  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  Antokolsky's  work  is  not  only  that 
in  his  early  days  he  took  his  themes  entirely  from  the 
life  of  the  Jews,  and  that  some  of  his  most  famous  statues, 
as  "The  Inquisition,"  were  based  on  Jewish  history,  but 
rather  that  all  the  products  of  his  genius,  whether  it  be 
"Ivan  the  Terrible"  or  "Spinoza"  or  "Socrates"  or  "A 
Talmudic  Controversy,"  are  permeated  by  the  Jewish  ele- 
ment, saturated  with  the  Jewish  world-attitude,  which  puts 
the  accent  in  life  on  the  idea,  on  mind,  on  the  soul,  on  the 
sanctity  and  the  invincible  strength  of  righteousness.  In 
his  endeavor  to  combine  depth  of  idea  with  beauty  of 
form,  nay,  to  have  the  soul  speak  to  us,  importune  us, 
out  of  a  fine  statue,  rather  than  the  deft  moulding  of  clay, 
to  have  the  idea  conquer  the  observer :  in  this  fealty  to  the 
spirit  Antokolsky  was  unique,  revolutionary  among  the 


XXX111 


sculptors  of  his  day.  In  him,  after  a  long  struggle, 
unveiled  in  his  autobiography,  the  so-called  Hebraic  and 
Hellenic  forces  blended  harmoniously.  His  cosmopol- 
itan culture  was  dyed  in  its  very  texture  with  the  colors 
of  Judaism. 

In  his  own  sphere  and  style  Adolph  Moses  passed 
through  an  exactly  similar  experience,  and  reached  the 
same  conclusion.  The  temptation  to  single  out  all  the 
points  wherein  his  life  resembled  that  of  the  illustrious 
artist  just  named,  I  shall  resist:  a  similarity  apparent 
in  the  influence  of  childhood  upon  the  later  work,  in 
the  effects  of  contact  with  university  culture,  in  the  grow- 
ing sympathy  with  humane  ideals,  the  gradual  absorption 
of  universal  enlightenment,  the  interfertilization,  as  anthro- 
pologists would  say,  of  Jewish  and  common  knowledge, 
as  well  as  in  the  moments  of  doubt,  struggle,  and  darkness, 
to  the  very  death  in  the  midst  of  dreams  and  unfinished 
labors.  The  fact  is  that  in  the  measure  in  which  Dr. 

Moses's  horizon  of  culture  expanded,  his 
Culture  and  conception  of  Judaism,  also,  broadened,  shak- 
Judaism.  ing  off  the  shackles  of  ceremonialism  and 

racial  exclusiveness.  Whether  or  no  his 
cosmopolitan  culture  served  to  modify  his  views  relating 
to  his  faith,  true  it  is  that  his  faith  proved  adequate 
to  his  culture.  Naught  there  was  in  the  vast  domain 
of  Greek  thought  and  poetry,  which  he  had  grown  to 
cherish,  or  in  the  history  of  the  world,  which  he  studied 
assiduously  and  with  rare  sympathy,  or  in  modern  litera- 
ture, of  which  he  was  ever  abreast,  or  in  the  discoveries  of 
science,  but  to  him  seemed  to  lead  up  to,  and  to  attest, 
the  truth  of  Judaism.  The  Ideals  of  Humanity,  as  reflected 
by  Homer  and  Dante  and  Shakespeare  and  Tennyson,  to 
him  had  found  their  essential  expression  in  the  ideals  of 
the  prophets  and  the  sages  of  Israel.  All  the  knowledge 
he  had  gathered  he  co-ordinated  under  the  name  of 
Judaism.  Not  a  truth  but  found  a  niche  in  the  sanctuary 


XXXIV 

of  his  faith.  And  that  faith  was  sufficiently  broad  to  wel- 
come all  men  and  house  all  knowledge.  For,  to  him  Juda- 
ism was  not  the  religion  of  any  one  race  or  chosen  people  ; 
it  was  not  the  mechanic  mirroring  of  a  certain  congenital 
Semitic  monotheism,  as  Renan  had  insinuated  ;  it  was  not 
designed  as  the  peculiar  property  of  any  set  of  men  bound 
together  by  physical  kinship.  He  deprecated  most  strenu- 
ously such  "  physiological  Judaism."  He  inclined,  we 
might  say,  towards  the  midrashic  view  that  the  Torah 
was  given  in  the  wilderness,  belonging  to  all  men  alike, 
so  that  everybody  might  come  and  claim  an  equal  share 
therein.  Judaism  to  him  was  the  supreme  doctrine  of  truth 
and  morality,  based  on  the  belief  in  the  one  only  God, 
founded  by  Moses,  developed  by  the  prophets  and  the 
rabbis,  enriched  by  the  thoughts  and  the  divine  ideals  of 
all  wise  and  noble  men,  witnessed  by  all  the  martyrs  to 
Truth,  and  destined  at  some  golden  day  to  unite  all  human 
hearts  and  minds  by  the  sacred  ties  of  righteousness  and 
love. 

Such  he  held  was  the  quintessence  of  Israel's  ancient 
faith.  As  the  rabbis  took  the  Divine  mission  of  Abra- 
ham to  have  consisted  in  "teaching  the  fam- 
The  Ways  of  ilies  of  man  the  ways  of  life  and  making 
Life  and  the  clear  to  them  the  unity  of  the  world",  even  so 
Unity  of  the  Dr.  Moses  understood  the  purpose  of  his 
World.  ancestral  religion.  The  name  Judaism  he 

regarded  as  a  misnomer  and  misfortune.  Its 
origin,  he  contended,  was  exotic;  it  was  fabricated  as  a 
countermark  to  Hellenism  by  Josephus,  a  man  who  tried 
to  congee  to  the  western  world,  just  as  the  ambitious  Lord 
Beaconsfield,  under  somewhat  similar  circumstances,  became 
the  originator  of  modern  Jewish  racialism,  of  "the  physi- 
ological Judaism,"  the  Judaism  of  noble  ancestry,  of  blue 
blood,  fit  to  stand  side  by  side,  in  point  of  pedigree,  with 
Anglo-Saxon  aristocracy.  The  name  Judaism,  he  argues 
further,  has  grown  associated  in  the  minds  of  men  with  a 


XXXV 


narrow  racial  creed,  with  the  particular  soul-business  of 
some  real  or  fictitious  Hebrews,  Semites,  nay,  with  a  com- 
plicated system  of  effete,  oriental  ceremonies  and  outlandish 
practices.  And  such  certainly  was  not  the  nature  of  the 
doctrine  the  prophets  taught,  of  the  old  world-wide  religion 
founded  on  the  unity  of  God,  Nature,  and  Man.  Yahve, 
the  God  of  the  prophets,  whencesoever  the  name  may  have 
been  borrowed,  to  the  enlightened  minds  of  Israel  had  come 
to  designate  the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  Father  of  man- 
kind, the  Lord  of  nature,  the  Source  ever-living  of  Justice, 
Righteousness,  Truth,  and  Love.  The  service  of  Yahve 
must  needs  embrace  belief  in  the  unity  of  the  world,  the 
furtherance  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  sacred  quest  of 
Truth,  and  unswerving  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  Righteous- 
ness. "Whom  have  I  in  heaven,  but  Thee?  And  there 
is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  beside  Thee,"  as  the 
Psalmist  has  sung.  In  this  absolute  subjection  of  the 
whole  universe,  of  all  life,  of  Man  and  Nature,  to  one  only 
God,  to  Yahve,  lay  the  spiritual  majesty  of  the  Religion  of 
Yahve,  or  Yahvism.  This  differenced  it  from  paganism, 
which  was  wont  to  parcel  up  humanity  and  the  universe 

among  a  host  of  wrangling  deities,  and  this  has 
Yahvisra.  distinguished  it  from  every  other  faith  that  in 

any  manner  whatever  has  tampered  with  the 
idea  of  the  Divine  Unity.  Not  that  these  other  creeds  had 
had  no  mission:  on  the  contrary,  every  system  of  religious 
thought  has  had  in  its  bosom  a  sacred  germ  of  truth ;  "there 
is  no  break  in  the  development  of  the  spirit  of  mankind;" 
"God  has  left  none  of  His  children  without  a  ray  of  His 
light."  "There  is  a  soul  of  truth,"  as  Herbert  Spencer 
reminds  us,  "in  things  erroneous."  Nay,  with  Jowett,  Dr. 
Moses  might  have  asked :  "Are  not  all  true  sayings  and  all 
good  thoughts,  in  all  times  and  in  all  places,  the  anticipa- 
tion of  a  truth  which  is  shining  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day?"  But  all  other  faiths,  in  his  judgment,  have 
been  merely  preparatory  to  the  one  universal  creed  which 


XXXVI 

regards  all  men  as  brothers,  all  nature  as  the  work  of  one 
Creator,  and  the  whole  cosmos  as  the  servant  of  one  domi- 
nant law  of  Righteousness;  all  other  religions  are  mere 
broken  arcs  of  idealism  in  relation  to  the  one  perfect 
round  of  Yahvism  which  encircles  the  whole  throbbing, 
striving,  yearning  heart  of  the  world. 

And  Yahvism,  rather  than  Judaism,  Dr.  Moses  would 
name  his  doctrine.  The  resumption  of  the  prophetic  title,  he 
argued,  would  connote  the  true  character  of  our  religion:  it 
would  be  mistaken  no  longer  for  the  peculiar  creed  of  a  dis- 
persed oriental  tribe;  it  would  cease  to  be,  as  unluckily  Juda- 
ism has  been  these  many  days,  the  weapon  of  vicious  anti- 
Semitic  bigots,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Revival  of  jejune  slogan  of  ignorant,  race-proud  Jews, 

Old  Name.  on  the  other;  it  would  be  rescued  from  the 

misuse  of  sentimental  venerators  of  anti- 
quated superstition  and  of  the  idolaters  of  obsolete  cere- 
monies; it  would  arise  before  the  world  in  its  true  nature, 
as  the  light  of  nations,  as  the  reflexion  of  the  universal 
Spirit,  as  the  principle  of  unity  in  the  world  and  humanity, 
as  the  rule  of  righteousness  and  love  amongst  all  men,  as 
the  knot  of  all  culture,  truths,  and  ideals;  and  it  would 
draw  to  its  bosom  many  a  man  who,  though  quite  in  accord 
with  its  sublime  aims  and  tenets,  now  shrinks  from  its 
embrace  by  reason  of  old  erroneous  associations.  The 
preaching  of  this  idea,  the  advocacy  of  Yahvism,  may  be 
called  the  distinctive  work  of  Adolph  Moses  in  the  full- 
blown summer  of  his  life.  While  Yahvism  is  a  word  that 
has  been  much  in  vogue  among  students  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  his  special  merit  to  have  taken  it  out  of  the 
cold  atmosphere  of  criticism,  out  of  the  vocabulary  of 
objective  scholarship,  to  turn  it  into  a  warm  doctrine 
of  life.  To  him  this  idea  became  the  sun  round  which 
all  his  knowledge  and  all  his  visions  circled:  by  its  light  he 
read  the  history  of  man,  studied  the  tasks  of  Israel,  inter- 
preted the  meaning  of  American  civilization,  forecast  the 


XXXV11 

future.     Poetry,  philosophy,  science,  art,  nature — the  spirit 
of  Yahve  moved  upon  the  face  of  all. 

The  pulpit  of  Temple  Adath  Israel,  at  Louisville,  was 
the  place  whence  this  new  Yahvism  radiated  into  the 

world.  When  in  the  year  1881  Adolph 
Temple  Adath  Moses,  in  a  most  honorable  manner,  was 
Israel.  called  to  the  rabbinate  of  that  congregation, 

though  he  left  Alabama  most  unwillingly, 
he  knew  of  the  larger  opportunities  the  metropolis  of 
Kentucky  had  to  offer.  And  he  did  not  err.  While  the 
increased  congregational  duties  entailed  a  sacrifice  which 
he  never  quite  ceased  lamenting — the  partial  discontinuance 
of  purely  scientific  work — he  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
what  very  few  in  a  similar  position  have  been  able  to  do. 
He  continued  to  publish  articles  on  anthropology  and 
current  topics  in  the  Zeitgeist  and  other  Jewish  periodicals. 
Biblical  criticism  remained  one  of  his  favorite  studies, 
suiting  his  analytic  bent  of  mind,  and,  though  he  was  too 
busy  to  work  out  in  full  the  various  ideas  with  which  his 
brain  was  alive,  he  managed  to  publish,  as  precursor  to  a 
larger  work  contemplated,  a  pamphlet  on  Nadab  and 
Abihu,*  which  has  attracted  the  attention  of  scholars.  Simi- 
larly, his  booklet  on  "The  Religion  of  Moses,"  issued  at 
Louisville  in  the  year  1894,  gained  friends  for  the  idea  of 

Yahvism  of  which  it  contains  an  eloquent 
Student  of  exposition.  Moreover,  spurred  by  scientific 

Medicine.  curiosity,  he  gave  himself  up  for  a  number 

of  years,  from  1887  to  1893,  t°  ^e  study  of 
medicine,  taking  a  regular  course  at  the  medical  school  of 
the  University  of  Louisville,  and  obtaining  a  doctor's 
diploma.  In  his  discourse,  Why  I  Studied  Medicine,  which 
we  fear,  however,  has  been  left  in  incomplete  form,  he 
describes  the  effect  of  that  enterprise  upon  his  religious 
views,  in  a  style  which,  in  its  bizarre  blending  of  faith  and 

*  Nadab  und  Abihu  oder  der  Undergang  der  Sauliden,  Berlin,  1890. 


XXXV111 

poetry  with  the  facts  of  science,  will  remind  some  readers  of 
Maurice  Maeterlinck.  However,  it  was  on  his  preaching 
that  Dr.  Moses  centered  all  his  time  and  the  riches  of 
his  mind.  To  him  the  sermon  was  the  medium  not  only 
of  edifying  his  actual  listeners,  but  of  improving  the  world. 
Humanity  was  his  congregation.  Yahvism  was  his  text 
perennially.  Unto  the  ages  he  lifted  his  voice,  which  was 
strong,  thunderous,  oceanic.  His  eye,  with  a  prophet's 
mysterious  power  seated  in  its  depths — an  inescapable,  lus- 
trous, pathetic,  haunting  eye — pierced  the  abyss  of  the  past, 
swept  the  realms  of  the  present,  and  boldly  looked  into  the 
hidden  halls  of  the  future.  To  him  one  might  address  the 
words  in  which  Ben  Sira  apostrophizes  King  Solomon:  "Thy 
soul  covered  the  whole  earth  and  thou  filledst  it  with  dark 

parables."  The  torch  of  his  teaching  was 
The  Preacher,  lit  at  the  flame  of  the  eternal  and  infinite 

Yahve,  who  was  ever  nigh  to  his  heart  and 
mind.  When  he  preached  he  was  not  like  a  man  speaking 
to  the  individual  hearer  only,  though  that  he  did  exceed- 
ing well  when  occasion  served:  at  his  best  he  was  like  a 
prophet  addressing  the  world,  trumpeting  forth  a  sovereign 
truth  that  is  sure  to  triumph  some  day;  like  Jeremiah,  he 
was  as  the  mouth  of  Yahve. 

America  he  regarded  as  the  Canaan  of  his  cherished 
religion.  It  is  here,  he  held,  that  Israel  has  gained  the 
unhampered  opportunity  of  diffusing  the  doctrines  of 
genuine  Judaism,  or  Yahvism.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Jew 
in  this  enlightened  republic  has  ceased  to  trouble  on 
account  of  his  religious  convictions,  and  is  able  to  act  as 
missionary,  not  only  as  martyr,  of  his  faith ;  on  the  other, 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  has  weakened,  as  it  were,  if  not  swal- 
lowed up,  all  the  ceremonial  habits  and  petrified  rites 
which  in  the  Old  World  still  circumscribe  and  encumber 
the  work  of  prophetic  religion.  The  Jewish  ceremonies, 
no  doubt,  served  a  good  end  in  their  proper  age,  but  now 
they  are  nothing  so  much  as  the  illegitimate  encroachment 


XXXIX 

of  the  past  upon  the  territory  of  the  present  and  the  future. 

New  circumstances  have  bereft  them  of  the 
The  Old  Faith  spirit  of  life;  they  linger  on  in  our"  midst  in 
in  the  New  the  anemic  manner  of  the  shadows  moving 
Land.  through  Sheol.  All  attempts  to  revive  them 

must  fail;  why  babble  about  a  return  to 
rites  and  ceremonies  which  willy-nilly  we  have  outgrown, 
why  seek  to  raise  up  artificially  things  that  are  dead,  to 
wheedle  ourselves  into  obsolete  beliefs  which  can  no  longer 
stir  our  breasts  or  better  our  souls?  Dr.  Moses  was 
opposed — as  a  man  holding  his  views  of  Judaism  could  not 
help  being — to  the  schemes  of  the  political  Zionists,  as 
well  as  to  the  nebulous  movement  of  the  New  Orthodoxy 
with  all  its  oracular  watchwords  relating  to  the  past,  historic 
continuity,  the  claims  of  the  ancient  literature,  and  such- 
like. He  knew  that  watchwords  and  romantic  phrases  and 
the  kickshaws  of  theorists  were  not  synonymous  with  life, 
that  they  would  never  respond  to  the  vital  needs  and  the 
spiritual  yearnings  of  men  living  in  the  heart  of  American 
civilization.  None  revered  the  past  and  its  sanctities  more 
than  he,  but  he  believed  that  "religion,"  in  the  words  of 
Robertson  Smith,  "can  not  live  on  the  mere  memory  of  the 
past."  He  looked  upon  himself  not  as  a  slave  ironed  with 
the  chains  of  dead  centuries,  but  as  a  chosen  servant  of 
the  present  and  the  future.  His  was  not  a  voice  coming 
out  of  the  sepulchres.  "A  new  time  has  begun,"  he  cries, 
"and  new  work  must  be  done  by  us!"  The  spirit  of  the 
bold  pioneers  lived  in  him.  He  fought  with  those  who, 
like  King  Arthur's  knights,  were  "the  fair  beginners  of  a 
nobler  time."  Fervently  he  espoused  every  cause  that 
augured  well  for  the  ideal  work  of  Israel  and  humanity. 
Though  in  his  mode  of  thought  he  was  much  more  radical 

than  our  sainted  teacher,  Rabbi  Isaac  M. 
Isaac  M.  Wise.  Wise — the  Ezra,  and  the  Nehemiah  also,  of 

American  Judaism — he  was  an  ardent  sup- 
porter of  the  latter  in  all  the  momentous  movements  he 


xl 

inaugurated,  and  his  friend  through  thick  and  thin.  The 
Hebrew  Union  College  from  the  day  of  its  foundation  had 
a  staunch  champion  in  Adolph  Moses,  who  foretold  at  once 
that  it  would  become  the  fount,  if  possibly  not  of  the 
highest  academic  learning,  certainly  of  vital  teaching  and 
spiritual  upliftment  to  the  Jews  of  this  country,  as,  indeed, 
time  has  proved  it  to  be.  In  fine,  recognizing  that  a 
Divine  Service  on  Sunday  mornings  might  be  turned  into 
a  profitable  agency  for  the  spread  of  his  religion,  he 
caused  it  to  be  instituted  in  his  congregation.  In  the 
autumn  of  the  year  1892,  he  began  to  hold  such  a  service 

at  his  Temple,  and  thenceforward  he  had  an 
Apostle  of  enlarged  opportunity  for  the  delivery  of  his 

Liberalism.          lofty  message.    Indeed,  he  became  the  apostle 

of  liberalism  to  Louisville.  Mixed  congre- 
gations of  Jews  and  Gentiles — brethren  in  ideals — came  to 
hear  the  word  of  Yahve  from  his  lips,  the  broad,  universal, 
exalted  faith  he  preached.  Who  knows  but  those  assem- 
blies fulfilled  partly  and  partly  foreshadowed  the  days  when, 
as  in  Zechariah's  vision,  "ten  men  shall  take  hold,  out  of 
all  the  languages  of  the  nations,  shall  even  take  hold  of 
the  skirt  of  him  that  is  a  Jew,  saying,  We  will  go  with  you, 
for  we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you  " ! 

Of  course,  none  could  expect  a  following  of  thousands 
for  a  man  at  the  core  of  whose  teaching  lay  what  we  have 
described  as  Yahvism.  Embodying,  on  the  one  hand,  a  very 
lofty  religious  idealism  that  drew  vitality  from  the  remote 
founts  of  metaphysic  thought,  and  urging,  on  the  other 
hand,  what  could  not  but  seem  to  the  masses  a  bold  breach 
with  the  past,  the  peculiar  doctrine  of  Adolph  Moses  had 
to  content  itself  with  the  precious  appreciation  of  the  few. 
For  is  there  aught,  in  such  matters,  that  men  in  general  are 
less  willing  to  yield  up  than  old  names?  The  rather,  it 

would  seem,  we  would  surrender  the  sub- 
A  Leader  of  stance  than  the  time-honored  title,  the 
the  Few.  picture  than  the  frame.  Though  various 

men  be  at  one  in  their  views  of  life   and 


xli 

faith,  yet  will  each  cling  stoutly  to  the  name  his  fathers 
have  called  holy.  It  is  a  species  of  family-tree.  In  this 
instance,  tnorever,  the  new  name,  Yahvism,  was  advocated 
simply  as  the  revival  of  an  old  term  for  an  ancient  truth, 
as  a  tie  that  possibly  would  unite  men  of  similar  thoughts 
and  ideals  who  now  are  separated  by  the  ill-luck  of 
mutually  exclusive  labels,  as  a  title  that  might  serve  to 
reconcile  the  highest  forms  of  Judaism  and  Christianity. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  discourse,  "Why  I  Am  a  Jew,"  is 
clear  proof  of  the  fact  that  Dr.  Moses  was  not  minded  to 
turn  his  back  upon  Jews  and  Judaism,  even  in  name,  as 
long  as  a  single  human  being,  be  he  never  so  humble  and 
distant,  were  caused  to  suffer  by  reason  of  loyalty  to  the 
faith  of  Israel.  It  is  here  that  we  see  in  juxtaposition  the 
diverse  dominant  elements  of  his  character:, the  frankness 
of  the  unbiased  scholar  and  the  fervor  of  the  universal 
idealist  combined  with  an  unexpugnable  fidelity  to  the 
cause  of  his  co-religionists.  His  soul  ribboned  by  the 
mystery  of  the  centuries,  by  most  tender  sympathy,  to  the 
Jews,  could  never — as  who  could? — grow  unconscious  of 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  man  known  as  Jew,  not  as  Yahvist, 
who,  despite  his  baggage  of  oriental  ceremonies  and 
medieval  superstitions  and  occidental  corruptions,  had 
through  all  the  darkness  of  the  ages  kept  alight  the  lamp 
of  monotheism  and  morality.  Pending  the  world's  accept- 
ance of  the  ideal  name  he  advocated — "for  the  sake  of  the 
way  of  peace,"  as  our  sages  would  have  said — it  was  a 
small  minority  only  upon  whom  he  might  rely  for  full 
sympathy  and  help. 

Neither  did  Dr.  Moses  possess  the  qualities  which 
ordinarily  fit  a  man  for  the  leading  of  large  hosts,  those 
qualities  of  intrepidity  in  the  face  of  the  world,  and  self- 
faith,  and  tact  which  distinguished,  for  example,  the 
divinely  gifted  Isaac  M.  Wise.  Powerful  and  fearless  in  the 
realm  of  ideas,  in  the  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  thought, 
he  had  much  lesser  skill  in  the  practical  world.  Not  only 


xlii 

was  he  naturally  possessed  of  an  almost  childlike  naivete", 
but  also  he  depended  to  the  very  last,  in  a  rare  manner, 
upon  the  buoying  and  the  support,  one  might  almost  say, 
the  commendation,  of  his  fellows.  Without  Aaron  and  Hur 
staying  up  his  hands,  he  would  grow  faint  and  unsteady 
in  his  fight  with  Amalek.  Sensitive  to  an  unusual 
degree — a  trait  disclosed  nowhere  so  touchingly  as  in  his 
ironical  discourse  on  "What  a  Minister  and  Layman  can  do 
in  Half-an-Hour" — he  could  never  disenthral  himself  from 
the  bondage  of  Public  Opinion,  hard  though  he  struggled 
against  it.  Ofttiines  this  was  to  him  a  source  of  grief  and 

doubt  and  tears.  "To  you,"  he  wrote  but  a 
James  Lane  year  before  his  death  to  Mr.  James  Lane 
Allen.  Allen,  in  reply  to  the  latter's  praise  of  "The 

Religion  of  Moses,"  "  I  make  bold  to  confess 
that  I  have  hitherto  had  a  very  poor  opinion  of  my  ability 
and  what  I  have  done  towards  building  up  my  own  char- 
acter and  the  better  life  of  my  fellow-men.  We  poor 
preachers  are  so  easily  misled  to  gauge  our  success  by  the 
number  of  people  who  come  to  hear  our  sermons.  This  is 
a  false  standard  which  vitiates  our  whole  life  and  distorts 
our  vision  as  to  what  is  truly  valuable  in  a  man's  activity. 
Depending  for  success  upon  'Public  Opinion,'  we  come  to 
believe  that  the  final  judgment  rests  with  the  masses."  In 
the  course  of  the  same  letter  he  thanks  Mr.  Allen  for 
having  raised  him,  by  his  commendation,  to  a  "higher 
level  of  self-consciousness."  "This  is  the  highest  privilege 
of  superior  men,"  he  continues,  in  a  strain  that  recurs  in 
his  writings.  "After  they  have  come  to  occupy  a  very 
high  station,  they  are  able  to  lift  up,  through  their  esteem 
and  love,  many  a  struggling  pilgrim."  This  quality  of 
self-depreciation,  outdoing  humility,  this  spiritual  nerv- 
ousness it  was  that  rendered  Adolph  Moses  deeply  appre- 
ciative of  the  least  token  of  sympathy  and  encourage- 
ment shown  him  by  his  fellow-men,  that  made  his  letters 
to  his  friends  veritable  love-letters.  But  it  will  be  seen 
easily  how  it  was  bound  to  hamper  the  practical  work  and 


xliii 

the  worldly  success  of  a  man  whose  philosophy  was  radical 
to  the  core,  requiring  aggresive  leadership  to  win  for  it  the 
adhesion  of  numbers. 

Thus  we  have  traced  the  life  and  the  labors  of  Adolph 
Moses  from  their  humble,  wellnigh  hidden  source  in 
remote  Poland,  the  old  homestead  of  Jewish  scholarship, 
to  the  place  where  they  emptied  into  the  infinite  ocean  of 
humanity  and  civilization.  We  have  seen  him  pass 
through  many  a  struggle  in  the  service  of  the  ideals  of 
truth  and  holiness.  Some  things,  of  course,  we  have 
refrained  from  touching,  especially  the  emotions  and  the 
experiences  which  men  are  wont  to  hide  from  the  eye  of 
their  fellows,  but  which  Dr.  Moses  had  an 
ingenuous  way  of  unbosoming.  His  soul,  in 
Resume.  the  main,  was  a  stage  upon  which  was  enacted 

a  drama  not  at  all  infrequent  in  the  history  of 
Israel :  the  drama  of  two  civilizations  seeking  each  other's 
hand,  the  so-called  civilizations  of  Hellas  and  Judea,  West- 
ern Culture  and  Judaism,  with  all  the  agony  and  bitterness 
and  conflicts  and  joys  that  ever  have  attended  such  inter- 
marriage. It  was  the  drama  that  was  known,  though  under 
a  different  form,  in  biblical  times,  that  Philo  lived  through 
in  ancient  Alexandria,  and  Maimuni,  also,  who  admonished 
his  disciple  that  "he  ought  to  know  all  that  is  fit  to  be 
known,"  and  Jacob  Ariatolio  who,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
with  Michael  Scot  served  the  cause  of  culture  at  the  court 
of  Naples,  and  Spinoza  who  harmonized  the  Bible  and 
Maimuni  and  the  Qabbalah  with  Descartes  and  founded 
modern  pantheism,  and  Moses  Mendelssohn  in  whose  in- 
tellectual garden  the  plants  of  the  East  and  the  West  grew 
up  in  such  charmful  promiscuity,  to  say  nothing  of  thous- 
ands of  others  that  have  gone  through  the  same  experi- 
ence "in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  in  the  covert  of  the  steep 
place",  "unwept,  unhonor'd,  and  unsung."  And  like  Moses 
Maimuni  and  Moses  Mendelssohn,  his  more  illustrious  pre- 
decessors, who  would  not  allow  their  metaphysics  to  thwart 


xliv 

them  in  the  practice  of  their  religion  as  they  had  received 
it,  Adolph  Moses,  whatever  his  philosophic  ideas,  was  ready 
to  abide  by  the  colors  of  Judaism  as  long  as  the  world  was 
not  quite  fit  for  the  ideal  faith  he  preached.  At  the  bottom 
of  all  his  thoughts  and  meditations  lay  the  true  Jewish 
piety,  that  blend  of  Rationalism  and  Mysticism,  that 
chant  of  a  hidden  nightingale  among  the  boughs  of 
Reason,  which  formed  the  faith  of  the  Prophets  and  the 
Psalmists,  of  Jeremiah  and  Job  and  Hillel  and  Nahmani 
and  Isaiah  Horowitz  and  Elijah  Gaon,  and  which — who 
knows? — yet  may  come  to  form  the  faith  of  the  world. 
Studied  closely,  in  sooth,  the  writings  of  Adolph  Moses, 
notwithstanding  their  radical  tenor,  will  be  found  to  con- 
tain naught  save  a  reassertion  of  old  Jewish  tenets.  He 
resembles  in  this  regard  all  true  reformers  who,  to  quote 
again  Robertson  Smith,  "do  not  claim  to  be  heard  on  the 
ground  of  the  new  things  they  proclaim,  but  rather  because 
they  alone  give  due  weight  to  old  truths."  The  basic  ideas 
of  his  philosophy  are  those  selfsame  concepts  upon  which 
the  thinkers  of  Israel  ever  have  builded.  Throughout 
his  discourses  there  pulsates  the  elemental  Jewish  senti- 
ment which  might  be  summed  up  in  the  benediction 
of  Judah  ibn  Tibbon,  the  illustrious  medieval  trans- 
lator: "The  Name  of  our  God  be  blessed  now  and  for- 
ever who  by  His  wisdom  brought  forth  being  out  of 
naught,  and  created  all  by  His  might,  and  chose  man  to  be 
the  most  exalted  of  His  creatures,  the  jewel  of  all  beings, 
and  put  upon  him  of  the  spirit  of  His  own  understanding, 
and  illumined  his  eyes  by  the  light  of  His  own  Soul,  and  set 
him  apart  by  wisdom  and  knowledge  from  all  created 
things,  and  made  him  to  rule  over  all  living  beings!" 
Whatever  seas  of  knowledge  and  culture  Dr.  Moses  may 
traverse,  his  mental  vessel  never  leaves  behind  the  anchor 
of  Jewish  monotheism.  Clothed  in  modern  attire,  he 
presents  to  us  afresh  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  world- 
wanderer,  the  Religion  of  Israel.  We  behold  anew  the 
miracle  of  mutability  constantly  recurring  in  the  life  of 


xlv 

Judaism:  its  power  of  adaption,  and  absorption,  and  self- 
loyalty;  the  genius  of  remaining  the  same,  true  to  itself, 
amid  all  changes.  Dr.  Moses  himself  may  not  be  aware  of 
all  the  ties  of  kinship  that  bind  him  to  his  spiritual  ances- 
tors; he  himself  may  not  know  how  oft  his  new  terms, 
borrowed  from  modern  thought  and  poetry  and  science, 
are  really  the  old  syllables  recombined — a  new  version  of 
the  things  learnt  openly  or  covertly  at  the  yeshiba.  And 
certainly  the  casual  reader,  a  stranger,  unfortunately,  to 
the  magnificent  library  of  medieval  Jewish  thought,  will 
not  suspect  how  oft  the  modern  utterances  are  but  the 
echo  of  the  mighty  voices  of  the  past — an  echo,  it  is  true, 
constantly  modulated  by  the  varying  environment,  as  are 
the  echoes  amid  the  diverse  scenes  of  the  Gap  of  Dunloe. 
He  may  not  imagine  that  the  doctrines  imparted  by  the 
Science  of  today,  relating  to  "the  organic  conception  of 
society"  and  "the  historic  conception  of  continuity,"  were 
sacred  thoughts  to  some  old  mystics  who  dreamed  in  Safed 
or  in  Prague  or  on  the  banks  of  the  Main  in  the  sixteenth 
or  seventeenth  century,  and  whose  books  were  composed 
in  a  language  not  commonly  studied  and  understood.  But 
the  initiate  will  not  find  it  hard  to  recognize — and  doing  so 
will  marvel  afresh  at  the  fundamental  oneness  of  the  mind 
of  man — the  fine  silken  thread  which  links  the  thought 
of  Adolph  Moses,  inwrought  with  the  rhymes  of  Tennyson 
and  Goethe  and  the  ideas  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  to  the 
quaint  fabric  of  the  old  Jewish  mystics.  They  will  know 
that  when  he  descants  on  the  interrelation  of  all  men, 
on  the  secret  ties  of  sympathy  that  unite  the  universe, 
and  on  our  yearning  to  be  at  one  with  'the  Universal 
Father,  he  clothes  with  new  vigor  the  cherished  concepts 
of  old  Judaism.  They  will  divine  the  mysterious  relation 
to  other  teachers  and  times  of  such  phrases  as,  "Through 
knowledge  the  currents  of  the  universal  Mind  flow  into 
our  individual  mind,"  or  "All  minds  are  one  in  the  Eter- 
nal Mind,"  or  "All  nature  is  the  incarnated  thought  and 
will  of  God,"  or  "The  individual  finds  God  near  him 


xlvi 

because  he  seeks  Him  in  the  universal  life,"  or  "Religion 
means  to  feel  the  kinship  of  all  souls  in  God,"  or  "God 
is  the  pre-established  harmony  of  the  spirits  of  all  beings." 
We  see,  then,  that,  despite  his  seeming  Radicalism, 
Adolph  Moses  remained  faithful  throughout  to  the  funda- 
mentals of  Judaism.  With  Tennyson,  one  of  his  favorite 
poets,  he  was  convinced,  that 

"That  man's  the  true  Conservative 
Who  lops  the  moulder'd  branch  away." 

The  ceremonies,  the  husks,  he  forsook,  but  the  kernel, 
the  spirit,  he  treasured  more  than  all  earthly  goods.  He 
was  a  studious  inquirer,  an  analytic  examiner  of  the  con- 
tents of  Tradition,  and  ever  in  search  of  new  light  upon 
the  meaning  and  the  truth  of  his  faith:  but  therein  he 
fulfilled  what  enlightened  Jews  always  have  deemed  the 
chief  duty  of  man.  "  This  matter,"  says  Rabbi  Bahya 
ben  Joseph,  "  is  like  to  a  servant  who  was  bidden  by  his 
king  to  collect  money  from  the  officials  of  the  State,  and 
to  count  the  receipts,  and  weigh  and  examine  them. 
Now  the  servant  was  an  adept  in  all  that  the  king  had 
commanded  him,  but  the  officials  conspired  against  him, 
and  by  much  persuasion  caused  him  to  place  confidence 
in  them.  Thereupon  they  were  wont  to  bring  the  money 
to  him  with  the  assurance  that  all  was  correct  in  amount 
and  weight,  as  well  as  coinage.  He  trusted  them,  being 
too  lazy  to  look  into  the  veracity  of  their  words,  and 
thus  made  light  of  the  order  of  the  king.  When  the 
matter  came  to  the  hearing  of  the  king,  he  commanded 
that  the  money  be  brought  before  him.  And  as  he  ques- 
tioned his  servant  regarding  weight  and  quantity,  the  lat- 
ter could  give  no  clear  account,  and  the  king  charged  him 
with  disobedience,  in  that  he  had  relied  upon  the  say 
of  others  in  a  matter  which,  though  their  words  were 
true,  he  was  able  to  ascertain  for  himself.  Only  if  he 
had  himself  been  unequal  to  the  task,  he  might  have 
been  free  from  blame  for  depending  on  others.  Simi- 


xlvii 

larly,  if  them  wert  unable  to  comprehend  by  the  aid 
of  thy  reason  the  nature  and  the  causes  of  the  religious 
obligations,  thy  excuse  for  refraining  from  examining 
them  might  be  an  excuse  indeed.  Also,  if  thy  intellect 
were  cramped  and  thy  cognition  too  feeble  to  grasp  it  all, 
thou  wouldst  be  free  from  punishment  for  thy  failing,  and 
wouldst  be  accounted  like  women  and  children  who  have 
these  matters  by  way  of  tradition.  But  if  thou  art  a  man 
of  knowledge  and  understanding,  and  art  able  to  look 
into  the  meaning  of  what  thou  hast  received  from  the 
wise  men  in  the  name  of  the  Prophets,  namely,  into  the 
roots  of  religion  and  the  principles  of  conduct,  it  is  thy 
duty  to  employ  thy  faculties  until  thou  has  become 
master  of  the  subject  and  it  has  grown  clear  to  thee  both 
by  way  of  tradition  and  reason.  If  so  be  that  thou  hidest 
thy  face  and  failest  to  do  this  thing,  thou  fallest  short  of 
what  thou  owest  to  thy  Creator." 

The  consciousness  of  such  a  sovereign  duty  animated  the 
research,  and  the  radicalism,  if  you  choose,  of  Adolph  Moses. 
But  throughout  his  quest  of  knowledge  and  beauty,  in  pres- 
ence of  Wisdom  and  History  and  those  wonders  of  Nature 
which  always  thrilled  his  heart,  he  never  failed  to  be 

"  Reminded  how  earth's  greenest  place 
The  color  draws  from  Heaven." 

His  innate  piety,  his  staunch  belief  in  God  and  immortality, 
moreover,  stood  him  in  good  stead  during  the  several  years 
of  suffering  that  preceded  his  death.  That  quality  alone 
was  able 

"To  pluck  the  amaranthine  flower 

Of  faith,  and  round  the  sufferer's  temples  bind 
Wreaths  that  endure  affliction's  heaviest  shower, 
And  do  not  shrink  from  sorrow's  keenest  wind." 

The  way  he  fought  against  the  disease  which  as  early  as 
the  year  1892  had  begun  its  fatal  attack  on  his  life,  evinced 
his  energy  and  the  rare  heroism  of  his  mind.  A  trip  to 
Switzerland  in  that  year  brought  him  but  temporary  relief. 
But  with  titanic  tenacity  he  clung  to  his  post  of  duty,  despite 


xlviii 

the  agonies  of  his  body.  The  pathos  of  his  life's  closing 
years,  the  contest  of  his  vigorous  and  unrelenting  mind 
with  the  sorely  ailing  body,  the  effort  of  the  dove  to  fly 
whose  wings  were  cut,  as  he  put  it  once,  I  shall  not  vent- 
ure to  depict.  Neither  his  firm  will  to  live,  however,  nor 
the  balmy  air  of  California  whither  he  resorted  several 
summers,  nor  the  love  and  the  skill  of  his  physicians  could 
restore  him  to  health ;  it  was  clear  to  his  friends  that  they 
were  losing  him,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1901  it 
was  resolved  to  relieve  him  of  the  bulk  of  his  ministerial 
cares  by  the  call  of  an  associate  rabbi.  Yet,  whilst  he 
was  walking  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow,  an 
ever  clearer  view  of  the  stars  was  vouchsafed  to  him,  his 
spirit  seemed  to  mount  ever  higher  to  the  throne  of  his 
Maker.  What  devotion  and  pain  and  piety  and  faith  are 
merged  together  in  "Jacob's  Dream,"  the  New  Year's  mes- 
sage he  sent  from  afar  to  his  congregation!  His  body 
was  in  distress,  but  his  soul  in  heaven.  On  the  seventh 
day  of  January,  in  the  year  1902,  his  struggle  came  to  an 
end,  and  when  three  days  later  his  body  was  borne  to  rest 
out  of  the  house  of  God  in  which  for  twenty  years  he  had 
ministered,  there  were  but  few  hearts  in  Louisville  that 
ached  not  at  his  going.  With  his  congregation,  which 
loved  and  revered  him,  all  Louisville  mourned  for  the 
passing  of  a  man  who  had  wrought  to  ennoble  and  uplift  his 
fellows,  and  ceaselessly  had  taught  them  to  love  one 
another  more  deeply  than  is  their  wont.  Surely,  Religion 
has  had  in  him  a  noble,  selfless  servant;  Humanity,  an 
ardent,  faithful  worker,  and  Israel  a  worthy  son.  The 
day  for  the  realization  of  his  ideals,  alas !  is  not  yet ;  but  let 
us  hope  that  the  specimens  of  his  work  gathered  in  this 
book  will  help  to  bring  it  nigh,  as,  no  doubt,  they  will 
serve  to  gain  for  his  memory  among  a  host  of  enlightened 
and  liberal  men  "  that  lasting  fame  and  perpetuity  of  praise 
which,"  in  Milton's  words,  "  God  and  good  men  have  con- 
sented shall  be  the  reward  of  those  whose  published  labors 
advanced  the  good  of  mankind."  H  Q  ENEW)W> 


YAHVISM. 


AMONG  the  innumerable  misfortunes  which  have  be- 
-*"*•  fallen  the  Israelites  since  they  ceased  to  form  a  state 
and  a  nation,  one  of  the  most  fatal  in  its  consequences  is 
the  name  Judaism.  In  the  mind  of  the  Gentiles  this  name 
indissolubly  associates  our  religion,  which  is  universal  in 
its  deepest  sources  and  universal  in  its  scope  and  tendency, 
with  the  Jewish  race,  and  thus  stamps  it  as  a  tribal  religion. 
Worse  still,  the  Jews  themselves,  who  have  gradually  come 
to  call  their  religion  Judaism,  are  most  of  them  misled  to 
believe,  that  their  faith  is  bound  up  altogether  with  the 
Jewish  race,  that  it  is  a  religion  for  Jews  alone  and  not  for 
people  of  any  other  race  or  nationality. 

Yet,  neither  in  biblical  nor  in  post-biblical,  neither  in 
talmudic  nor  in  much  later  times,  is  the  term  Judaism  ever 
heard  of  among  the  Israelites.  The  Bible  speaks  of  the 
religion  of  Israel  as  "  Torath  Yahve,"  the  instruction,  or 
the  moral  law,  revealed  by  Yahve ;  more  fully  it  is  stated 
to  be  the  statutes,  judgments,  and  ordinances  of  Yahve.  In 
other  places,  what  we  are  wont  to  call  the  religion  of  Israel 
is  represented  as  "Yirath  Yahve,"  the  fear  and  reverence 
of  Yahve.  These  and  other  kindred  appellations  continued 
for  many  ages  to  stand  for  the  religion  of  Israel  among 
its  adherents.  To  distinguish  it  from  Christianity  and 
Islam,  the  Jewish  philosophers  sometimes  designate  it  as  the 
faith  or  the  belief  of  the  Jews.  It  was  Flavins  Josephus, 
writing  for  the  instruction  of  Greeks  and  Romans,  who 
coined  the  term  Judaism,  in  order  to  pit  it  against  Hellen- 
ism as  a  worthy  opponent  and  rival.  By  Hellenism  was 
understood  the  civilization,  comprising  language,  poetry, 
religion,  art,  science,  manners,  customs,  and  institutions, 


which,  since  the  times  of  Alexander,  had  spread  from 
Greece,  its  original  home,  over  vast  regions  of  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa.  Josephus,  zealous  for  the  glory  of  his 
nation,  wished  to  prove  to  his  pagan  contemporaries  that 
the  Jewish  conceptions  of  God,  of  the  soul,  of  morality, 
enshrined  in  a  noble  literature,  were  in  most  respects 
superior  to  those  of  Hellenism.  And  to  the  totality  of 
their  beliefs,  moral  commandments,  religious  practices, 
and  ceremonial  institutions  he  gave  the  name  of  Judaism. 
The  Christian  writers  eagerly  seized  upon  the  name  thus 
furnished  them,  in  order  to  distinguish  Christianity  from 
the  mother-religion  from  which  it  had  sprung  and  become 
differentiated;  they  were  thus  enabled  to  demonstrate  to 
the  heathens,  who  were  seeking  the  true  God,  that  for 
them  to  embrace  the  religion  of  Israel  meant  to  become 
Jews,  members  of  the  hated,  despised,  and  already  perse- 
cuted Jewish  race.  Moreover,  the  Jews  themselves,  who 
intensely  detested  the  traitor  Josephus,  refrained  from  read- 
ing his  works  and  from  adopting  any  of  his  theological, 
practical,  or  historical  ideas.  Hence,  the  term  Judaism 
coined  by  Josephus  remained  absolutely  unknown  to  them. 
It  was  only  in  comparatively  recent  times,  after  the  Jews 
became  familiar  with  modern  Christian  literature,  that 
they  began  to  name  their  religion  Judaism. 

But  why  object  to  this  name  and  try  to  supplant  it  by 
another,  if  it  does  most  fitly  express  the  facts,  the  whole 
of  those  religious  ideas  and  practices  for  which  it  stands? 
Is  it  not  really  the  religion  of  Jews  and  of  no  other  race 
besides?  Has  not  your  religion,  an  inquiring  Christian  may 
ask,  from  its  dim  beginnings  to  this  day,  exclusively  and 
jealously  been  confined  to  the  so-called  chosen  people,  the 
lineal  decendants  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob?  When  did 
the  Jews  ever  bring  the  light  and  truth  of  their  religion,  the 
moral  ideas  and  laws  in  which  it  glories,  to  men  of  other 
races  and  nationalities?  To  these  questions  I  will  reply, 
not  with  the  fencing  logic  of  an  advocate  arguing  for  one 


side  of  a  case,  but  from  the  depths  of  my  religious  convic- 
tions: A  religion,  which  has  moral  monotheism  for  its 
basis,  the  belief  in  one  only  God,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  a  religion  which  teaches  that  all  men  are  descended 
from  one  first  father  and  mother,  and,  hence,  that  all  men, 
without  distinction  of  race  or  climate,  are  made  like  their 
first  parents  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God ;  a  faith  which 
proclaims  that  God  is  the  author,  sustainer,  law-giver,  and 
judge  of  all  men,  can  not  be  tribal  and  national,  can  not 
reserve  all  its  store  of  light  and  moral  truths  for  one  people 
alone,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  races,  leaving  the  rest 
of  the  world  forever  to  grope  in  darkness,  and  to  perish  in 
corruption  through  ignorance  of  the  right  way.  Such  a 
religion  is  bound  to  be  universal  in  its  extent;  it  must 
strive,  unless  it  belie  its  very  motive,  to  bring  its  good 
tidings  to  all  men,  it  must  put  forth  efforts  to  bestow  the 
blessings  of  which  it  is  in  possession  upon  all  the  families 
of  the  earth,  to  educate  all  the  races  of  men  according  to 
the  truths  it  holds,  to  teach  them  the  ways  of  righteous- 
ness and  holiness  in  which  they  should  go.  A  tribal  or 
national  religion,  one  that  does  not  cherish  the  desire  to 
extend  its  empire  beyond  the  limits  of  a  certain  race  or 
people,  is  essentially  a  pagan  religion,  at  least  it  has  not 
yet  rid  itself  of  certain  ideas  which  are  characteristic  of 
Paganism. 

What  is  the  cardinal  difference  between  Paganism  and 
the  religion  of  Israel,  or  Monotheism?  Every  nation  in 
antiquity  had  a  supreme  god  of  its  own,  from  whom  it 
believed  itself  descended  through  mythical  ancestors. 
Every  national  god  cared  only  for  the  welfare  of  his  own 
people,  being  utterly  indifferent  to  the  material  and  spirit- 
ual interests  of  other  nations,  simply  because  they  were 
not  his  children  and  stood  in  no  relation  to  him.  He 
loved  only  his  nation,  and  was  relentlessly  hostile  to  those 
nations  that  were  at  war  with  his  people.  The  children 
of  his  nation  were  bound  to  obey  his  voice,  to  fulfill  his 


commands  and  ordinances,  to  seek  his  favor,  and  to  show 
their  gratitude  to  him  for  his  protection.  The  glory  of 
his  nation  was  also  the  glory  of  the  national  god,  its 
defeat  was  his  defeat.  With  the  disappearance  of  the 
people,  that  people's  god  lost  his  empire,  and  vanished 
into  nothingness. 

The  religion  of  Israel  arose  in  irreconcilable  opposition 
to  this  pagan  theology.  Yahve,  He  who  was,  is,  and  will  be, 
He  is  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  ruler  of  all  nations. 
All  men  are  His  children,  because  they  are  stamped  with 
His  spiritual  likeness,  because  they  derive  their  life  from  the 
breath  of  life  which  He  has  breathed  into  them.  He  is  the 
Lord  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh.  His  divine  laws  of  justice 
are  binding  on  all  men,  for  He  is  the  judge  of  the  whole 
earth.  He  visits  their  transgressions  on  all  nations.  His 
mercy  is  extended  over  all  His  creatures,  and  He  graciously 
pardons  the  sins  of  repentant  heathens,  that  heed  the  warn- 
ings of  His  prophets,  and  return  from  their  evil  ways.  Israel 
is  not  His  sole  possession.  From  the  rising  of  the  sun  to 
its  setting  is  His  name  to  be  praised  among  the  nations. 
Abraham,  who  sought  the  true  God,  and  found  Him,  was 
chosen  to  be  a  blessing  to  all  men,  and  through  his  seed 
should  all  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.  Israel  was 
chosen  to  be  the  light-bearer  of  God's  truth,  His  missionary 
to  teach  the  nations  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  show  them 
the  way  in  which  they  should  walk.  The  children  of  Israel 
were  not  to  enjoy  special  privileges  and  favors,  but  were 
to  be  witnesses  of  Yahve.  Israel  is  the  servant  of  God,  that 
will  not  grow  faint  nor  become  weary  until  he  has  estab- 
lished justice  on  earth.  The  servant  of  God  suffers  for  the 
sins  of  the  nations,  he  is  despised  and  his  visage  is  not 
like  that  of  a  man,  his  voice  is  not  raised  on  high,  even  the 
bruised  reed  does  he  not  break.  Laden  with  sorrows,  bleed- 
ing from  many  wounds,  he  is  ordained  to  gather  the  lost 
sheep,  the  nations  of  the  earth,  unto  Yahve,  their  Father 
and  Judge. 


Such  is  the  ideal  mission  of  Israel,  as  conceived  by  his 
seers.  Nor  has  the  historic  life  of  Israel  in  its  better  days, 
whenever  the  conditions  of  the  time  favored  such  a  course, 
been  faithless  to  its  high  universal  mission.  The  best 
writers  in  Israel  had  a  more  or  less  clear  insight  into  the 
fact  that  Israel  had  not  been  formed  into  a  people  by  race 
affinities,  but  by  the  formative  and  unifying  forces  of  spirit- 
ual kinship.  It  was  early  recognized  that  Israel  was  not 
what  is  called  a  pure  race,  but  had  received  large  accretions 
from  foreign  tribes.  Judah,  the  reputed  father  of  the  tribe 
of  Judah,  we  are  informed,  married  a  Canaanitish  woman 
who  gave  birth  to  the  ancestors  of  the  Jewish  clans.  This 
simply  signifies,  that  the  tribe  of  Judah  grew  out  of  a  union 
of  Israelitish  and  Canaanitish  tribes.  In  fact,  the  Calebites, 
the  Yerachmeelites,  and  the  Kenizites,  though  forming 
integral  parts  of  Judah,  even  in  later  historic  times  were 
known  to  have  been  of  Canaanitish  origin.  Joseph  married 
Osnath,  an  Egyptian,  or,  translated  into  the  language  of  his- 
tory, the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  received  large 
Egyptian  accretions.  A  whole  clan  of  Simeon  was  called 
Saul,  the  son  of  the  Canaanitish  woman,  which  means  that 
it  contained  so  many  native  elements  that  it  was  looked 
upon  as  largely  Canaanitish.  Moses  married  a  Midianitish 
woman,  and  his  children  were  therefore  of  mixed  blood. 
The  whole  Midianitish  clan,  into  which  Moses  married, 
was  adopted  into  the  Israelitish  nation,  and  played  an 
important  part  in  the  religious  history  of  Israel.  It  is  agreed 
on  all  hands  that  the  great  mass  of  the  indigenous  popula- 
tion of  Canaan  were  gradually  absorbed  by  the  Israelites, 
and  their  blood  blended  with  that  of  the  conquerors.  The 
ancestress  of  the  sacred  dynasty  of  David  was  Ruth,  a 
daughter  of  the  hated  Moabitish  people.  Already  during 
the  Babylonian  captivity  many  converts  were  made  to  the 
religion  of  Israel,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  numer- 
ous families  were  found  among  the  returned  exiles,  unable 
to  prove  that  they  were  of  Israelitish  descent.  The  prophet 


Deutero-Isaiali  welcomes  the  strangers,  who  join  themselves 
to  Yahve,  to  serve  Him.  Of  them  He  will  take  to  minister 
in  His  Temple.  Several  centuries  later  large  regions  of 
Babylonia  were  inhabited  by  native  Babylonians,  who  had 
become  converted  to  the  religion  of  Israel.  The  royal 
family  of  Adiabene  and  many  great  noblemen  were  pros- 
elytes and  proved  themselves  most  generous  to  their 
co-religionists  in  times  of  misfortune.  During  the  last  cen- 
tury of  the  Second  Commonwealth  the  religion  of  Israel 
was  gaining  millions  of  converts.  There  was  hardly  a  city 
in  the  Roman  empire  which  had  not  an  Israelitish  congre- 
gation largely  composed  of  converts  from  heathendom. 
At  the  time  of  Paul  almost  all  the  women  in  Damascus  had 
embraced  Judaism.  The  Pharisees,  the  most  zealous,  the 
most  numerous  and  progressive  sect  of  Israel,  are  accused 
by  the  Gospel  writers  of  traversing  wide  seas  and  lands  to 
make  a  convert.  Still  later,  in  the  ninth  century,  C.  E.,  a 
rabbi  converted  the  royal  family  of  the  Khazaars,  the 
whole  nobility,  and  a  large  part  of  the  common  people  to 
his  religion.  Proselytes  were  always  held  in  high  esteem 
by  the  Israelites.  It  was  not  till  Christianity,  having 
ascended  the  throne,  forbade  the  Jews,  on  pain  of  death, 
to  make  or  receive  converts  that  the  proselytizing  zeal  of 
Israel  was  checked.  He  that  reads  the  history  of  Israel 
with  an  impartial  mind  must  convince  himself  that  the 
leading  and  most  enlightened  minds  aspired  to  make  the 
religion  of  Yahve  the  religion  of  mankind. 

But  it  shall  not  be  denied  that  there  were  other 
tendencies  and  forces  at  work  opposed  to  the  universal 
aspirations  of  our  religion.  There  occur  numerous  pas- 
sages in  the  Bible,  mostly,  however,  in  the  historical,  not  in 
the  prophetic  parts,  which  do  not  breathe  this  lofty  univer- 
sal spirit,  but  betray  a  spirit  of  national  exclusiveness.  We 
must,  however,  judge  a  religion  and  the  literature  in  which 
•it  is  embalmed  by  its  highest  manifestations.  We  must 
go  to  the  root-principles  of  every  religion,  to  its  creative 


elements,  and  then  consider  whatsoever  agrees  with  them 
as  vital  and  permanent,  and  whatsoever  contradicts  them 
as  a  passing  phase,  as  a  temporary  aberration,  caused  by 
the  pressure  of  deteriorating,  adverse  circumstances.  The 
chief  cause  in  checking  the  universal  tendency  of  Yahvism, 
was  the  ever-present  fear  that  by  coming  in  close  contact 
with  the  surrounding  nations  the  Israelites  would  learn 
their  ways  and  practice  their  abominations,  and,  instead  of 
leading  men  to  the  true  God,  would  themselves  be  misled 
to  worship  idols  and  defile  themselves  with  the  shameless 
iniquities  of  idolatry. 

Of  such  infinite  importance  was  the  worship  of  Yahve 
and  the  knowledge  of  His  ways  held  to  be,  so  great  and 
imminent  seemed  the  danger  that  the  light  of  revelation, 
but  dimly  burning  in  the  heart  of  the  Israelitish  masses, 
might  be  totally  extinguished  by  the  dense  darkness  of  the 
heathen  world,  that  many  writers  and  law-givers  wished  to 
isolate  Israel,  in  order  to  preserve  in  its  midst  the  world's 
priceless  blessings.  Hence,  those  utterances  and  enact- 
ments, born  of  a  spirit  of  exclusiveness,  which  stand  in  such 
glaring  contrast  with  the  spirit  of  universality  of  the  great 
prophets  and  with  the  cardinal  ideas  of  Yahvism.  More- 
over, Israel,  though  ideally  the  chosen  messenger  of  Yahve 
to  all  nations,  under  the  given  actual  conditions  formed  a 
people  and  a  state,  struggling  for  independence  and  often 
for  its  existence,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  hostile  nations 
that  sought  to  subjugate  it,  and  even  to  destroy  its  name 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  A  state  of  mutual  hostility 
does  not  tend  to  awaken  feelings  of  amity,  to  foster  the 
ideas  of  universal  brotherhood.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  these 
tremendous  difficulties,  the  spirit  of  universality,  the  belief 
in  the  unity  of  God  and  the  unity  of  mankind,  was  forcing 
its  way  into  the  foreground  of  the  national  consciousness. 
In  the  leading  minds,  at  least,  this  spirit  gained  the 
supremacy  over  all  contending  interests  and  ideas,  and 
especially  after  the  great  triumph  of  Yahvism  under  the 
Maccabees  it  sought  ways  and  means  to  realize  itself. 


8 

But  there  was  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  realization 
far  more  formidable  than  all  the  opposing  forces  men- 
tioned above.  Many  causes,  which  can  not  be  enumerated 
here,  had  concurred  to  develop  the  ceremonial  laws  to 
stupendous  dimensions.  The  Jews  alone,  who  had  grad- 
ually, in  a  long  course  of  historic  training,  grown  into 
them,  could  make  the  serious  attempt  to  shape  their  life  in 
accordance  with  them  without  feeling  them  as  a  burden. 
The  rest  of  the  world,  especially  the  Western  peoples, 
regarded  these  countless  strict  ordinances  and  ceremonies 
as  unnatural  and  insupportable  burdens.  These  ceremonies 
formed  a  wall  of  separation  between  the  world  and  Israel. 
The  wonder  is  that  the  spirit  of  Yahvism  succeeded  in 
making  so  many  converts  in  spite  of  being  grievously 
hampered  in  its  march  by  the  weight  of  the  ceremonial 
yoke.  Christianity  sprang  into  existence  and  started  on 
its  career  with  the  intense  strength  of,  and  with  the  ardent 
enthusiasm  for,  Israel's  mission  to  the  nations.  Freed 
from  the  trammels  of  ceremonial  law  by  Paul,  at  once  it 
gained  an  immense  advantage  over  the  Mother-church, 
which  dared  not  break  away  from  its  peculiar  national 
forms.  This  was  the  tragedy  of  Israel,  that  he  had  within 
himself  a  universal  soul  and  a  national  soul,  each  con- 
tending for  the  mastery  and  neither  able  to  obtain  it. 
During  the  middle  ages  there  was  no  possibility  for  Yah- 
vism to  spread  within  the  domain  of  Christendom.  The 
penalty  for  making  converts  was  torture  and  death.  Thus 
Yahvism  was  surrounded  within  by  a  high  wall  made  of 
hard,  firmly-cemented  ceremonies  and  without  by  the  dread- 
ful wall  of  fanaticism,  hatred,  and  suspicion. 

How  could  pure  Yahvism  dream  of  making  conquests? 
Yet  the  belief  in  a  Messiah  to  come  implied  not  only  the 
future  deliverance  of  the  Jews  from  the  world's  hatred  and 
cruel  persecution,  but  also  the  assurance  of  the  reign  of 
universal  peace  and  universal  brotherhood  under  the  sway 
of  Yahve,  the  God  proclaimed  by  Israel.  But  it  was  a  mere 


dream,  a  far-off  vision  which  had  no  feature  common  with 
any  possible  reality.  For  the  first  time  in  many  centuries 
an  arena  has  been  opened  in  this  country,  and  in  our  age, 
for  pure  Yahvism  to  unfold  its  universal  nature,  to  accom- 
plish its  mission  as  a  religion  of  many  races  and  nations, 
to  gather  into  its  folds  those  Gentiles,  whose  reason  can 
not  accept  the  peculiar  tenets  of  Christianity,  who  are 
separated  from  us  only  by  a  name. 

The  Israelites  of  America,  at  least  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  enlightened,  the  truly  genuine  American 
Israelites,  have  completely  emancipated  themselves  from 
the  yoke  of  ceremonial  laws,  have  broken  down  the  inner 
wall,  built  by  the  hand  of  Talmudic  and  later  times,  which 
has  kept  Jews  and  Gentiles  apart.  True,  the  outer  wall, 
raised  by  prejudice,  ignorance,  race  antipathies,  and  relig- 
ious fanaticism,  though  many  breaches  have  been  made  in 
it,  is  still  far  from  being  demolished.  But  let  us  at  least 
do  our  part  to  the  best  of  our  ability ;  let  us  try  to  perform 
the  task  which  the  God  of  History  has  imposed  upon  us; 
let  us  remove  every  obstacle  from  the  way  in  which  the 
universal  spirit  of  Yahvism  would  move,  and  as  a  first 
important  step  let  us  give  up  the  name  Judaism,  which  is  a 
hindrance  to  the  spread  of  our  religion.  Painful  though 
the  truth  be,  let  us  not  hide  it  from  ourselves,  that  many 
who  would  embrace  our  faith,  because  they  are  already  as 
one  with  us  in  belief,  refrain  from  doing  so  because  they 
do  not  wish  to  become  Jews,  because  by  embracing  Judaism 
they  believe  they  lose  their  own  race  and  nationality  and 
become  adopted  into  the  Jewish  nation  and  race.  Let  us 
call  our  religion  YAHVISM.  It  is  no  new-fangled  name,  it 
is  simply  the  name  by  which  our  faith  was  called  and 
cherished  by  our  forefathers,  who  designated  it  as  YIRATH 
YAHVE,  the  religion  of  Yahve.  It  is  the  fittest  of  all  pos- 
sible names  for  our  religion.  It  is  the  expression  of  our 
cardinal  beliefs  and  the  profoundest  ideas  of  our  faith. 
Under  this  name  we  adore  God  as  Eternal  and  Infinite 


IO 

Existence,  as  the  source  of  all  being.  As  Yahve  we  worship 
Him  as  Omniscient  Providence.  Yahve  is  the  Creator, 
the  Preserver  and  Ruler  of  nature  and  mankind.  Yahve 
is  our  King,  He  is  our  Law-giver,  our  Judge  and  Saviour. 
As  Yahve  He  revealed  himself  to  Moses,  the  founder  of  our 
religion.  As  soon  as  we  shall  be  accustomed  to  name  and 
proclaim  our  religion  as  Yahvism  and  to  call  its  adherents 
Yahvists,  it  will  be  set  free  to  begin  once  more  its  predes- 
tined career  of  conquest.  Many  Gentiles  who  now  shrink 
from  religious  fellowship  with  us,  though  at  heart  our 
co-religionists,  because  they  do  not  wish  to  become  Jews 
by  embracing  Judaism,  will  readily  flock  to  the  banner  of 
Yahvism,  will  gladly  call  themselves  by  the  name  of 
Yahve,  will  proudly  proclaim  themselves  Yahvists.  Many 
again,  who  now  claim  kinship  with  us  by  virtue  of  Jewish 
parentage,  although  they  have  turned  their  backs  upon 
our  religion,  despising  its  truths  and  mission,  will  cease 
to  be  regarded  as  members  of  our  community  as  soon  as 
our  religion,  by  assuming  the  name  of  Yahvism,  will  be 
dissociated  in  thought  from  the  Jewish  race.  There  is  a 
tremendous,  a  magic  power  in  a  name!  With  a  name  you 
may  keep  alive  the  demons  of  contempt,  of  race-prejudice, 
of  historical  hatred ;  with  a  name  you  may  conjure  up  the 
angel  of  mutual  respect,  of  union,  and  universal  love. 


CEREMONIALISM. 


Jews  of  to-day,  who  live  in  the  most  advanced 
-*-  countries  of  the  world,  are,  with  every  fibre  of  their 
being,  part  and  parcel  of  modern  civilization.  At  the 
same  time  they  know  themselves  to  be  the  heirs  of  the 
ancient  national  religion  of  the  Hebrew  people  and  the 
foreordained  continuators  of  the  spiritual  history  and  mis- 
sion of  Israel. 

This  twofold  life  of  the  modern  Jew  on  the  one  hand 
is  a  high  privilege  and  a  source  of  spiritual  power,  and 
on  the  other  it  brings  on  numerous  conflicts,  some  of 
which  appear  irreconcilable.  The  customs,  usages,  and 
ceremonial  laws  of  the  ancient  Asiatic  Hebrews  and  of 
the  isolated  medieval  Jews  are  in  many  respects  hope- 
lessly antagonistic  to  the  ways  of  life  of  modern  Occidental 
civilization.  Let  us  not  in  a  spirit  of  levity  and  self- 
delusion  slur  over  this  fact.  Let  us  full  earnestly  face  it, 
as  becomes  sincere  men.  We  may  deny  it  with  our  lips, 
but  in  our  heart  abides  the  conviction  that  the  contrast  is 
there,  often  glaring,  between  the  old  and  the  new  order  of 
things,  between  Canaan  and  Europe.  We  are  the  children 
of  two  worlds ;  with  heart  and  soul  we  belong  to  both, 
and  only  with  the  last  breath  would  we  renounce  either  of 
them. 

It  is  true  the  Christians  are  also  very  largely  Israelitish 
in  sentiment,  belief,  and  ethics.  Our  Book  of  Life  is  also 
their  Book  of  Books.  The  lofty  moral  ideals,  which  were 
evolved  during  post-biblical  times,  and  which  in  many 
respects  mark  a  considerable  advance  beyond  those  of  the 
Bible,  are  also  embodied  in  the  writings  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. Our  prophets  and  sweet  singers,  our  heroes  and 


12 

martyrs,  are  also  venerated  by  the  Christians  and  looked 
up  to  as  noble  types  of  God-seeking  humanity.  But 
Christianity,  though  at  first  a  national  Jewish  sect,  soon 
spread  westward,  from  Asia  to  Europe,  from  the  Jews  to 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  became  in  the  course  of  a 
century  or  two  thoroughly  denationalized.  In  its  struggle 
for  existence,  growth,  and  expansion  Christianity  broke 
loose  from  almost  all  distinctively  national  customs,  cere- 
monies, and  laws  which  were  repugnant  and  unacceptable 
to  the  Occidental  peoples.  Through  this  act  of  denation- 
alization, the  abolition  of  all  ancestral  usages  and  regu- 
lations which  had  no  moral  meaning  and  educational 
purpose  for  the  world  at  large,  Christianity  got  the  start 
of  Judaism  in  the  conversion  of  mankind.  Without  this 
bold  departure  it  would  have  continued  through,  perhaps, 
four  or  five  generations  as  an  insignificant  Jewish  sect, 
at  last  to  disappear  and  be  forgotten.  By  casting  off  the 
garb  of  national  ceremonialism  Christianity  succeeded  in 
becoming  one  of  the  great  universal  religions. 

The  rise  and  spread  of  Islam,  which  almost  extirpated 
the  Christian  religion  in  the  Orient,  caused  the  latter  to  be 
thenceforth  for  good  and  evil  identified  with  the  life  and 
history  of  the  Occidental  nations.  During  the  Middle 
Ages  Christianity  came  to  be  tainted  with  the  fierce  and 
gloomy  superstitions,  inoculated  with  the  savage  instincts 
of  the  new  barbarous  nations  inhabiting  Europe,  corrupted 
with  the  gross  vices  of  the  primitive  Teutons  and  Slavs,  and 
contaminated  with  the  more  refined  immoralities  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  races.  With  the  resurrection  of  the 
sciences  and  arts  and  the  rebirth  of  the  Israelitish  moral 
powers,  it  emerges  along  with  the  Occidental  nations  from 
a  state  of  seeming  decadence  and  degeneracy  to  new  purity 
and  vigor.  If  it  did  not  lead,  it  at  least  followed  steadily 
in  the  wake  of  advancing  Western  civilization,  for  the 
simple  and  cogent  reason  that  the  Occidental  nations,  that 
are  the  creators  and  standard-bearers  of  modern  culture, 


happen  to  be  also  the  highest  representatives  and  acknowl- 
edged standard-bearers  of  Christianity.  True  it  is,  the 
results  of  modern  science  and  the  theory  of  the  universe 
it  holds,  in  more  than  one  respect  seem  to  clash  with 
some  of  the  vital  dogmas,  and  to  negative  some  of  the 
essential  doctrines,  of  the  Christian  religion  as  authorita- 
tively taught  by  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  churches. 
But  these  grave  questions  concern  merely  matters  of  faith 
and  philosophy.  As  to  manners  and  customs  and  the 
general  ways  of  life  there  practically  exists  no  antagon- 
ism between  Western  Christianity  and  Western  civilization. 
The  antagonism,  as  has  been  said,  is  confined  to  problems 
of  metaphysics  and  to  differences  between  ideal  ethics 
and  actual  imperfect  conduct. 

When  we  turn  from  Christianity  to  the  contemplation 
of  Judaism  in  its  relation  to  modern  civilization,  we  are 
met  with  difficulties  of  a  different  nature;  one  might  say 
with  difficulties  of  an  opposite  kind.  In  matters  of  faith 
and  dogma  Judaism  finds  itself  in  full  accord  with  the  gen- 
eral postulates  of  modern  science.  It  knows  of  but  one 
theory  of  the  universe  which  it  is  bound  to  combat  to  the 
bitter  end,  namely,  soulless  materialism  or  atheism.  In  the 
holy  of  holies  of  religious  metaphysics  the  central  ideas 
of  Judaism  dwell  in  peace  and  conscious  harmony  with  the 
boldest  and  most  comprehensive  conception  of  modern 
Occidental  philosophy.  The  belief  in  the  absolute  unity 
of  God,  implying  the  unity  of  universal  life ;  the  belief  that 
unbounded  nature  is  a  perennial  and  progressive  manifesta- 
tion of  the  creative  Infinite;  the  belief  that  justice  and  love 
are  not  accidental  phenomena  appearing  in  man,  but  are 
the  divine  revelations  of  the  perfection  and  mercy  of  the 
Eternal ;  the  doctrine  that  the  human  soul  is  godlike  in 
essence  and  dignity  and  free  from  the  taint  of  any  imagin- 
ary hereditary  guilt  or  curse  ;  the  conviction  that  man  is  a 
free  moral  agent,  dependent  for  good  or  evil,  for  self-mastery 
or  self-degradation,  on  his  own  free  will ;  the  view  that 


14 

there  is  a  Messianic  future  in  store  for  mankind,  when 
there  will  be  a  perfect  humanity  spontaneously  living 
according  to  the  indwelling  laws  of  God :  these  vital  tenets 
of  Judaism,  professed  by  all  its  adherents,  by  orthodox  and 
reformer,  are  the  very  ideas  which  the  greatest  and  pro- 
foundest  philosophers  of  Europe  have  presented  and  are 
presenting  as  the  last  outcome  and  the  most  precious  fruits 
of  their  speculation !  The  ark  of  the  covenant,  subsisting 
between  God  and  mankind,  containing  the  everlasting  laws 
of  justice  and  love,  rests  safely  within  the  sanctuary  of 
Israel's  religion.  No  iconoclastic  hands  will  ever  break  it. 
It  will  endure  as  long  as  the  heavens  endure.  Philosophy 
and  science  are  the  cherubim  from  between  whose  wings 
the  still  divine  voice  speaks  from  the  mercy-seat  of  the 
human  heart  and  mind !  In  matters  of  faith  and  ethics 
Judaism  has  indeed  anticipated,  or  held  pace  with,  the 
intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  the  most  advanced  civil- 
ization. But  when  we  consider  the  outward  forms  and 
the  ceremonial  garb  of  Judaism,  its  most  enthusiastic 
votaries  can  not  close  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  it  has  here 
and  elsewhere,  but  more  especially  in  European  lands, 
very  much  to  throw  aside  entirely,  much  to  change  and 
modify,  in  order  to  be  perfectly  at  one  with  the  ways  of 
life  of  modern  civilization,  so  as  to  become  in  the  deepest 
and  widest  sense  one  of  its  living  and  universal  spiritual 
powers.  With  the  exception  of  the  numerous  reform 
congregations  in  America,  Judaism  is  still  wearing,  even 
in  the  most  advanced  countries  of  Europe,  the  ceremonial 
garments  which  fitted  it  well  enough  in  Asia,  but  which 
look  strange,  out  of  date,  and  out  of  fit  in  the  midst  of 
the  Occidental  nations  of  today.  Though  universal  to 
the  core,  though  necessarily  universal  in  tendency,  though 
knowing  itself  destined  by  Providence  to  gather  into  its 
fold  many  millions  from  all  nations,  it  yet  appears  to  the 
eye  of  the  fairest  observers  clad  in  its  antiquated  cere- 
monial costume  which  distinguished  it  during  the  grievous 


isolation  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Millions  and  tens  of  millions 
of  Gentiles  who  are  no  longer  Christians  even  in  name, 
but  are  at  one  with  us  in  all  the  essential  elements  of  our 
religion,  feel  themselves  repelled  from  Judaism.  For,  by 
retaining  all  its  national  ceremonies,  usages,  and  laws 
dating  from  biblical,  talmudical,  and  medieval  times,  it  is 
made  to  appear  intensely  national  or  tribal,  narrow  and 
exclusive,  and  strangely  out  of  harmony  with  its  Occidental 
surroundings. 

The  student  of  history  full  well  knows  why  Judaism 
has  thus  in  seeming  remained  national  and  outlandish. 
Like  all  ancient  religions,  the  religion  of  Israel  was 
national  in  origin  and  scope.  It  had  its  roots  deep  in  the 
heart  of  the  people,  it  grew  out  of  the  spiritual  experience 
of  the  people,  it  derived  its  purest  and  strongest  forces 
from  the  vigorous  morality  of  the  chosen  people  ;  it  was 
bound  up  with  all  the  forms,  customs,  and  laws  of  the 
national  life ;  it  was  in  keeping  with  the  climate,  and 
adjusted  to  the  habits,  manners,  and  occupations  of  that 
agricultural  race ;  it  was  intertwined  with  all  the  historical 
memories  of  Israel,  joyful  and  mournful.  True,  the  great- 
est and  wisest  of  God's  prophets,  in  whom  His  spirit  was 
a  lamp  shining  far  into  futurity,  in  whose  soul  the  inde- 
structible essence  of  Israel's  religion,  ethical  monotheism, 
blossomed  forth  into  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  universal  love 
and  universal  humanity,  these  wondrous  seers  in  their 
boldest  visions  often  broke  through  the  bounds  of  nation- 
ality, declaring  in  accents  still  ringing  through  the  ages 
that  Yahve  was  the  God  and  Father,  not  of  Israel  alone, 
but  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  that  His  laws  of 
justice  and  mercy  will  one  day  come  to  be  the  laws  of  life 
to  all  the  tribes  of  men.  They  decried  many  ancient 
ways  and  ancestral  usages  dear  to  the  people's  heart 
as  vicious  and  ungodly.  They  sneered  at  most  of  the 
inherited  religious  practices  and  ceremonies,  thought  by 
the  priesthood  and  the  populace  to  constitute  true  piety. 


i6 

Even  the  institution  of  sacrifices,  which  in  the  opinion 
of  all  ancient  races  was  the  very  essence  and  life  of 
religion,  was  held  in  abhorrence  by  the  foremost  of  Israel's 
prophets.  The  greatest  of  them  all  proclaims  in  the  name 
of  Yahve :  u  What  is  to  me  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices? 
In  the  blood  of  bullocks  and  of  lambs  and  of  goats  I  have 
no  delight.  Bring  no  more  false  oblations !  Incense  is  an 
abomination  to  me.  Put  away  your  evil  doings  from 
before  mine  eyes;  cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well; 
seek  justice ;  relieve  the  oppressed ;  defend  the  father- 
less; plead  for  the  widow."  Micah  has  for  all  the  families 
of  the  earth  and  for  all  the  ages  to  come  defined  the  true 
nature  of  religion  in  these  memorable  words:  "Where- 
with shall  I  come  before  the  Eternal  and  bow  myself 
before  the  most  high  God?  Shall  I  come  before  him  with 
burnt  offerings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old  ?  Will  the  Eternal 
be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands 
of  rivers  of  oil?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  the  sin  of 
my  soul,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  my  transgression?  He 
has  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good ;  what  does  Yahve 
require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  before  thy  God?"  Such  were  the  religious 
ideas  and  moral  ideals  of  Israel's  best,  of  God's  own 
chosen  messengers.  But  the  nation  as  a  whole  was  not  yet 
ripe  for  so  lofty  a  religion.  It  was  simply  a  psychological 
impossibility  for  the  mass  of  the  people  to  break  away 
from  most  of  its  national  conceptions  and  usages  and 
rise  to  the  dizzy  heights  of  the  prophet's  universal  religion 
of  justice,  mercy,  and  love  of  God!  Had  not  Israel  been 
providentially  shattered  to  pieces  and  scattered  abroad, 
had  not  the  nation  as  a  body  been  destroyed  and  only  a 
remnant  thereof  been  carried  away  from  its  native  soil 
into  captivity,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  national 
polytheistic  elements,  acting  with  the  unbroken  force  of 
hereditary  habits  of  thought  and  modes  of  action,  would 
at  last  have  overwhelmed  the  prophetic  spirit  of  a  purely 


17 

moral  monotheism.  As  it  was,  a  remnant  of  the  remnant 
was  saved  and  rejuvenated  by  imbuing  itself  largely  with 
the  ideas,  hopes,  and  aspirations  of  the  prophets.  Polythe- 
ism, together  with  all  its  abominations,  was  cast  out  from 
their  heart  and  life,  and  ethical  monotheism  was  firmly 
and  forever  established  in  their  soul.  They  formed  the 
nucleus  of  a  new  religious  community,  destined  to  be  the 
leaven  of  mankind. 

But  could  that  fragment  of  the  nation,  concentrating 
as  it  did  within  itself  the  best  and  most  vital  spiritual 
forces  of  the  past,  help  cherishing  along  with  the  glorious 
memories  of  the. past  also  the  hope  of  returning  to  the 
home  of  the  fathers  and  there  build  up  anew  the  old 
nationality  on  the  foundations  of  the  divine  law?  About 
fifty  thousand  devoted  men  and  women,  among  them 
numerous  priests,  returned  to  Palestine  and,  amid  ruins 
and  desolation,  began  the  arduous  task  of  creating  a  new 
commonwealth  on  the  basis  of  Israel's  religion  according 
to  the  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  of  Yahve.  But 
which  forms  of  the  ancestral  life  were  to  be  discarded 
and  which  retained?  All  those  ceremonies  and  customs 
which  were  opposed  to  the  .spirit  of  monotheism  were 
wholly  done  away  with.  On  the  other  hand,  all  those 
modes  of  worship  and  forms  of  life  which  contained  an 
element  of  morality  or  tended  to  bind  the  people  together 
and  distinguish  it  from  the  surrounding  heathen  tribes, 
were  fondly  preserved  and  embodied  in  the  code  of  relig- 
ious and  national  laws.  The  Temple  was  rebuilt  and 
became  the  rallying  center  and  the  emblem  of  the  national 
existence.  Daily  sacrifices  were  instituted  anew  and  the 
priesthood,  the  sons  of  Zadoc,  the  sole  remaining  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ancient  ruling  families,  came  to  be 
invested  with  the  supreme  guiding  power.  The  priests  in 
course  of  time  learned  to  consider  themselves  better  and 
holier  and  nearer  to  God  than  the  people,  because  they 
ministered  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  offering  daily  sacri- 
fices to  Him  and  burning  incense  in  His  sanctuary,  because 


i8 

they  ate  the  sacred  bread  and    meat   of  God,  observing 
certain  laws  of  Levitical  purity  and  diet.     Then  rose  a 
noble   democratic   spirit    in    Israel    in    opposition    to    the 
priestly  claim  to  special  sanctity.     Great  and  wise  teachers 
sprung    from    the    mass    of   the    people,  proclaimed    the 
doctrine  that  the  whole  people  is  holy,  that  God  is  in  it 
and  with   it   no    less    than    in    the   sons  of  Aaron;  in  a 
word,  that  all  Israel  was  to  be  a  kingdom  of  priests  and 
a   holy  nation.     To    carry  this   grandly  democratic   idea 
into  practice  they  extended  the  laws  of  Levitical  purity 
and  diet  and,  in  part,  also  costume,  to  the  whole  mass 
of  the  people.     All  Jews  should  abstain  from  eating  what 
was  forbidden  to  the  priests  ;  the  meat  that  came  upon 
their  table  should  be  of  an  animal  killed  in  the  way  the 
sacrifices  were  slain.     Every  layman  should  wash  his  hands 
before  breaking  bread,  just  as  the  priest  did  before  eating 
of  the    holy  bread.     What  was    impure    to    the   sons    of 
Aaron  should  be  equally  impure  to  the  sons  of  the  com- 
mon people ;  what  contaminated  a  priest  should  be  consid- 
ered   polluting   also  to  the  body  of  every  other  Israelite. 
In  these  and  in  innumerable  other  respects  all  laymen 
were    made   to    observe    with    the   most   scrupulous    care 
all    the   rules   and   laws   which    regulated    the   daily  life 
of  the  priests.     The  effect  of  this  religious  policy  was  in 
many  ways  highly  beneficial.     It  imbued  the  whole  people 
with  the  consciousness  of  its  priestly  dignity  and  mission. 
It  made  every  Jew  feel  that,  as  to  sanctity,  devotion,  and 
godliness,  he  might  be  the  peer  of  the  high  priest  himself. 
Moreover,  it   fostered    habits    of  cleanliness,  temperance, 
and  self-mastery. 

But,  as  does  frequently  happen  in  the  life  of  individuals 
and  nations,  in  the  pursuit  of  means  to  reach  certain 
ends  the  latter  are  often  lost  sight  of  and  the  tem- 
porary means  come  to  be  treated  as  ultimate  ends.  The 
democratization  of  Judaism  by  means  of  popularizing  the 
ceremonial  laws  was  to  serve  the  high  purpose,  first  to 


19 

make  the  whole  nation  a  kingdom  of  genuine  priests  of 
God,  and  then,  through  the  agency  of  this  elevated  and 
humanized  people,  to  impart  the  blessing  of  Israel's  ethical 
monotheism,  the  statutes  of  justice  and  mercy,  to  all  the 
families  of  the  earth.  The  ceremonial  laws  gradually 
became  so  numerous,  all-embracing,  exacting,  and  burden- 
some that  a  very  large  portion  of  the  Jewish  nation  itself, 
the  so-called  people  of  the  land,  was  unable  to  live  up  to 
them,  because  it  could  not  live  under  them.  Thus  there 
was  an  ever-widening  gulf  between  the  great  mass  of 
the  uneducated,  consisting  mostly  of  peasants,  and  the 
learned  classes,  mostly  inhabitants  of  the  cities.  Again, 
the  ceremonial  laws  had  gradually  built  up  a  perfect 
wall  around  Judaism,  and  prevented  the  heathen  seeking 
the  God  of  Israel  from  entering  His  sanctuary  except 
through  the  narrow  ceremonial  gate  left  open.  Even 
under  these  immense  difficulties  and  restrictions  numer- 
ous Gentiles  adopted  Judaism  and  took  upon  themselves 
the  whole  burden  of  its  laws.  There  was  the  spectacle 
of  a  lofty  and  thoroughly  humane  religion,  which  in 
its  very  nature  and  tendency  was  destined  to  become 
universal,  yet  which,  through  the  concurrence  of  many 
historical  influences,  had  become  imprisoned  within  a 
thick  shell  of  national  laws  and  ceremonies,  so  that  it 
could  not  go  forth  as  the  messenger  of  God  to  conquer 
the  earth  by  the  might  of  its  divine  moral  powers.  May 
be  that  if  the  fatal  crisis  had  not  so  soon  arrived,  if 
the  terrible  struggle  with  murderous  Rome  had  not  cut 
the  nation  to  pieces  and  laid  waste  Judaism's  center  of 
gravity,  the  process  of  historical  development  would  have 
brought  on  a  peaceful  or  revolutionary  solution  of  the 
conflict  between  the  universal  soul  and  the  ceremonial 
tribal  body  of  Israel's  religion.  As  it  was,  the  fearful 
catastrophe,  which  had  more  than  decimated  the  Jews  and 
drained  nearly  all  the  life-blood  of  the  nation,  left  Juda- 
ism prostrate  and  sick  at  heart,  even  nigh  unto  death.  For 


2O 

a  long  time  it  could  not  think  of  spiritual  conquest  abroad. 
All  that  the  leaders  of  Israel  could  do  was  to  gather 
together  and  unite  the  scattered  fragments  and  breathe 
into  them  the  spirit  of  trust  in  God,  of  indomitable  endur- 
ance, and  of  hope  in  a  glorious  future  and  mission. 

Under  such  critical  conditions,  during  the  supreme 
struggle  for  mere  existence,  any  attempt  to  dissolve  the 
national  ceremonial  laws  would  have  proved  sure  death 
both  to  the  Jews  and  to  Judaism.  Meanwhile  Christianity, 
untrammeled  by  national  memories,  disasters,  and  laws, 
was  reaping  the  rich  harvest  prepared  by  the  parent  relig- 
ion. Then  came  the  ages  of  Christian  dominance  and 
supremacy,  but,  alas,  also  of  Christian  fanaticism.  Then 
was  ushered  in  the  sad  time  when  the  Jews  were  driven 
back  upon  themselves,  ostracised,  calumniated,  hunted 
down  like  wild  beasts,  robbed  of  all  human  rights,  and 
shut  up  in  narrow  ghettos.  No  wonder  that  the  poor, 
down-trodden  exiles,  the  memories  of  whose  past  was  their 
only  solace,  whose  literature,  biblical  and  talmudical, 
was  their  only  home,  whose  hope  in  a  Messianic  deliver- 
ance was  their  only  star  in  the  night  of  misery,  considered 
themselves  an  alien  nation  dwelling  for  a  time  among 
hostile  nations,  but  destined  one  day  to  be  restored  to  its 
sacred  soil,  to  see  Jerusalem  rebuilt  in  all  her  glory,  and 
the  Temple  of  God  erected  anew,  where  sacrifices  would 
as  of  yore  be  offered  daily  to  the  Most  High.  No  wonder, 
since  the  present  was  dark  as  the  darkness  of  Egypt,  that 
our  fathers  turned  their  eye  now  back  to  the  transfigured 
past  and  now  lovingly  towards  the  hoped-for  national 
future.  No  wonder  that  they  clung  not  only  to  the  moral 
laws,  but  with  equal  devotion  to  all  the  ceremonial  ordi- 
nances and  statutes  of  Bible  and  Talmud,  unconcerned 
with  the  question  whether  any  of  them  had  outgrown  their 
time,  meaning,  and  usefulness.  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that 
not  only  were  all  the  old  ceremonial  laws  preserved  and 
observed,  as  if  they  were  imperishable,  divinely-revealed 


21 

moral  laws,  but  innumerable  new  enactments  and  observ- 
ances were  year  by  year  deduced  from  the  older  ones,  often 
by  means  of  hair-splitting  casuistry.  Ceremonial  burden 
was  heaped  upon  burden,  restriction  upon  restriction,  fence 
added  to  fence,  until  almost  every  step  was  hampered  and 
every  act  hedged  in  by  ceremony.  The  whole  life  of  the 
Jews  was  enveloped  with  the  ceremonial  laws  as  with  a 
huge  spider's  web. 

At  last,  however,  the  light  of  tolerance  has  appeared. 
Civilization  has  tamed  the  dragon  of  fanaticism,  broken 
down  the  walls  of  the  ghettos,  and  with  gracious  words 
proclaimed  to  the  Jews :  "  Go  forth  from  your  prison, 
breathe  the  air  of  liberty  and  equality,  mingle  with  your 
brethren,  live  with  them  as  the  children  of  the  same 
Father,  work  with  them  and  for  them,  let  your  spiritual 
light,  which  has  so  long  burned  in  your  dark  prison,  shine 
in  the  midst  of  mankind,  contribute  your  share  of  intellect- 
ual, moral,  religious,  and  artistic  work  to  the  store  of  the 
world's  possessions."  We  have  heard  that  divine  voice  of 
saving  and  liberating  civilization,  and  have  with  grateful 
and  joyful  hearts  leaped  forth  from  the  prison  of  isolation 
into  the  arena  of  modern  life.  We  no  longer  feel  our- 
selves an  alien  race  dwelling  in  misery  among  hostile 
races.  We  know  that  we  are  flesh  of  the  flesh,  bone  of 
the  bone,  and  spirit  of  the  spirit  of  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion. WTe  no  longer  are  a  nation  within  a  nation,  we  no 
longer  hope  nor  wish  to  be  restored  to  Canaan  and  there 
begin  a  new  national  life.  We  are  here  to  stay  forever,  to 
be  with  heart  and  soul  and  might  children  of  Western 
civilization.  We  hope  for  no  Messiah,  but  believe  in 
the  coming  of  the  great  day  when  there  will  be  perfect 
humanity  living  in  god-like  harmony  and  union  beneath 
the  scepter  of  universal  righteousness  and  love.  We 
believe  that  we,  the  professors  of  Judaism,  have  still  the 
sacred  mission  to  hasten  the  great  day  of  the  Lord  by  liv- 
ing according  to  the  moral  ideals  of  pure  Judaism  and  to 


22 

gather  in  those  many  Gentiles  whose  spirit  urges  them  to 
walk  with  us  in  the  ways  of  the  prophets  and  sages  of 
Israel. 

Yet  such  a  consummation,  which  is  devoutly  to  be 
wished  for,  requires  the  most  complete  adaptation  of  Juda- 
ism to  the  views  and  habits  of  modern  civilization.  The 
inexorable  spirit  of  history  leaves  us  no  other  choice. 
The  conditions  of  modern  life  and  the  exigencies  of  the 
times  have  in  fact  already  decided  the  issue  in  a  manner 
not  to  be  mistaken  or  reversed.  The  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  Jews  living  in  the  civilized  countries  of  the 
world,  and  more  especially  the  American  Israelites,  have 
virtually  emancipated  themselves  from  all  such  Mosaic  and 
rabbinical  laws  as  regulate  diet,  priestly  purity,  and  dress. 
Even  among  those  styling  themselves  orthodox  in  this 
country  there  is  not  one  in  ten  who  strictly  conforms  to  all 
the  ceremonial  laws  as  laid  down  in  the  Bible,  the  Talmud, 
and  later  authoritative  books.  There  is  not  one  in  fifty 
among  the  German  and  native  orthodox  Jews  in  the  United 
States  who,  under  the  genuine  and  unadulterated  Jewish 
orthodoxy  of  Poland  and  Russia,  does  not  deserve  scourging 
and  worse  punishments  in  accordance  with  indisputable 
enactments,  biblical  or  rabbinical.  The  truth  of  the  mat- 
ter is,  the  practice  has  long  ago  outrun  the  theory;  or 
rather,  it  has  pursued  its  own  way  without  any  theory, 
being  blindly  determined  by  social  agencies  at  work.  No 
protest,  no  grievous  lamentation  will  ever  bring  to  life 
what  has  irrevocably  gone  out  of  existence  for  want  of 
harmony  with  its  present  environments. 

But  this  very  state  of  things  gives  much  concern  to 
those  having  the  mission  of  Judaism  greatly  at  heart. 
This  rapid  change,  the  speedy  abolition  of  time-honored 
and  immemorial  forms  and  ceremonies,  brought  about  by 
no  clearly-conceived  principle,  but  by  mere  stress  of  uncon- 
scious forces,  has  been  and  is  fraught  with  great  spiritual 
danger.  It  has  made  a  breach  in  the  moral  consciousness 


23 

of  the  Jewish  masses,  it  has  produced  a  glaring  contrast 
between  the  living,  though  unreasoning,  practice  and  the 
old  theory.  So  many  biblical  and  rabbinical  laws  being 
flagrantly  and  generally  violated,  the  question  necessarily 
suggests  itself  to  many,  whether  both  Bible  and  Talmud 
have  not  entirely  ceased  to  be  our  religious  and  moral 
guides.  In  place  of  this  unthinking  and,  hence,  blindly 
destructive  practice,  Reform  Judaism  enunciates  a  great 
principle,  derives  from  the  study  of  Israel's  history  a  prin- 
ciple, which  heals  the  breach  in  the  moral  consciousness  of 
the  people  by  drawing  a  line  of  distinction  between  the 
moral  laws  and  the  ceremonial  laws  of  Israel's  religion. 
Its  moral  laws  are  indestructible  and  universal,  binding  on 
all  ages  and  all  men.  Not  one  jot  nor  one  tittle  of  them 
shall  pass  away  as  long  as  the  heavens  endure.  But  the 
ceremonial  laws,  biblical  and  rabbinical,  have  been  and 
are  merely  educational  means  to  serve  ultimate  moral 
ends.  They  are  timely  and  full  of  value  only  as  long  as 
they  fit  in  with  the  general  conditions  of  society.  As 
long  as  they  are  quick  with  life  and  purpose  they  are 
beautiful  symbolic  rites,  helpful  and  healthful  aids  to  the 
working  of  the  religious  ideals.  But  when  they  have  lost 
all  rational  meaning  and  become  mere  fossilized  forms, 
they  are  mere  dead-weight,  obstructing  the  path  of  true 
religion  and  clogging  the  spiritual  progress  of  the  soul. 

Are  we  advocating  the  abolition  of  all  religious  cere- 
monies and  rites  of  biblical  and  post-biblical  origin? 
Heaven  forbid !  There  are  symbols  which  are  still  preg- 
nant with  beautiful  significance,  there  are  rites  which  tend 
to  elevate  and  sanctify  our  lives,  there  are  ceremonies 
which  keep  green  the  memories  of  epoch-making  events  in 
Israel's  history,  connecting  by  means  of  living  links  the 
past  with  the  present.  To  abolish  these  would  be  like  cut- 
ting away  living  and  fruit-bearing  branches  from  the  tree 
of  Judaism.  Do  we  insist,  in  a  spirit  of  reforming  fanati- 
cism, that  all  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  no  longer 


24 

exert  an  elevating  and  moralizing  influence,  should  at  once 
be  done  away  with,  even  if  they  happen  to  be  dear 
to  the  people's  heart  from  force  of  hereditary  habit  and 
historical  association?  As  long  as  they  are  no  hindrance 
to  moral  progress  let  us  leave  to  the  slow  but  sure  action 
of  time  to  dissolve  them.  When  they  will  disappear,  as 
disappear  they  must  for  want  of  spiritual  forces  to  vitalize 
them,  the  indestructible  essence  of  religion  will  nowise  be 
affected,  if  but  the  truth  be  firmly  established  in  the  peo- 
ple's heart  that  the  moral  laws  alone  are  imperishable, 
while  all  ceremonies  are  transient  in  their  nature. 


THE  RELIGION  WE  OFFER  TO 
THE  GENTILES. 


i. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

T^OR  the  first  time  since  the  final  triumph  of  Christianity 
*  over  Paganism,  for  the  first  time  since  the  victorious 
daughter-church  had  on  pain  of  death  forbidden  the  Jews 
to  make  converts,  Yahvism,  usually  called  Judaism,  is  in 
our  time  and  country  given  a  fair  chance  to  renew  its  long 
interrupted  propaganda,  to  make  the  attempt  at  gathering 
into  the  fold  of  our  church  those  Gentiles  whose  heart  and 
mind  are  out  of  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Christi- 
anity. The  only  one  God,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth, 
who  spake  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophets  and  revealed 
Himself  as  the  God  and  Father,  the  Law-giver,  Judge,  and 
Guide  of  all  mankind,  is  calling  us  by  name,  and  bidding 
us  to  gird  our  loins  with  strength,  to  bring  to  all  the  mes- 
sage of  Yahvism,  the  message  of  His  all-embracing  and 
all-quickening  unity,  the  message  of  His  revealed  laws  of 
universal  justice,  the  message  of  humanity  to  be  redeemed 
by  love  and  reconciled  by  entertaining  the  covenant  of 
righteousness  with  God.  A  new  time  has  begun  and  new 
work  must  be  done  by  us.  The  God  of  history  is  putting  to 
us,  the  children  of  this  generation,  a  glorious  task  which  is 
of  infinite  importance  but  also  of  infinite  difficulty.  Some- 
where the  beginning  must  be  made  by  believing  hearts 
and  dauntless  spirits.  Those  who  are  determined  to  walk 
in  the  path  carved  out  by  the  inspired  messengers  of  God 
must  take  the  first  bold  steps  toward  assimilation  by  spirit- 
ual conquest — if  not  immediately  in  practice,  at  least  in 


26 

clearly-conceived  theory.  The  time  has  come  for  us  firmly 
to  grasp  the  problem  of  our  missionary  calling.  If  God 
has  foreordained  us  to  be  teachers,  we  should  know  what 
we  are  to  teach:  what  cardinal  principles  of  belief,  what 
ideas  of  morality,  what  ideals  of  private  and  social  conduct 
constitute  the  religion  which  we  are  to  offer  to  men  who 
do  not  call  themselves  by  the  name  of  Israel. 

But  many  of  those  within  the  reach  of  our  voice,  and 
many  more  who  will  read  this  discourse,  will  smile  at  the 
high-aspiring  claims  which  we  make  for  the  destiny  of 
Yahvism.  They  will  call  our  belief  in  the  conquering 
future  of  our  religion  a  pleasant  day-dream  which  is  at 
variance  with  the  stubborn  realities  of  the  conditions 
given  by  history.  "It  is  not  thinkable,"  they  will  say, 
"that  Yahvism  will  ever  spread  beyond  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  Jewish  race.  Any  such  attempt  is  foredoomed  to 
ignominious  failure.  It  is  not  credible  that  the  Jews  will 
ever  make  propaganda  for  their  religion.  They  do  not 
show  the  least  desire  for  such  an  adventurous  and  arduous 
mission.  In  their  heart  of  hearts  they  firmly  believe  that 
Judaism  is  synonymous  with  the  Jewish  race.  To  them 
no  less  than  to  the  Gentiles,  it  seems  simply  ridiculous  that 
any  but  a  born  Jew  should  profess  the  religion  of  the  Jews 
and  be  a  member  of  the  church  of  Yahve." 

To  the  doubters  and  the  cavillers  among  my  co-relig- 
ionists I  reply:  If  the  Israelites  have  no  wish  to  make 
propaganda  for  their  faith,  the  worse  for  them,  and  the 
worse  still  for  their  descendants.  Our  present  position 
in  the  world  is  a  most  dangerous  anomaly.  History 
furnishes  no  parallel  to  it.  Nothing  like  it  can  be  traced 
in  the  annals  of  the  past,  nothing  corresponding  to  it  can 
be  found  in  the  present  on  the  whole  face  of  the  earth, 
We  live  scattered  everywhere  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  we  are  distinguished  by  them  and  distinguishable 
from  them.  We  are  regarded  as  a  distinct  people,  and 
many  Jews,  smitten  with  judicial  blindness,  accept  this 


27 

false  and  fatal  view,  and  speak  of  themselves  as  belonging 
to  the  Jewish  people.  If  we  are  indeed  a  separate  nation 
or  people,  we  have  no  business  and  no  right  to  dwell  in 
every  part  of  the  world,  and  to  claim  everywhere  the 
privileges  of  full  citizenship.  We  should  as  quickly  as 
possible  try  to  have  a  country,  a  language,  and  a  govern- 
ment of  our  own,  and  thus  constitute  a  nation  in  reality 
instead  of  being  satisfied  with  being  one  in  theory.  There 
is  consistency  and  method  in  the  madness  of  the  Zionists. 
They  argue:  "We  have  these  many  centuries  been  a  nation 
living  in  exile.  In  former  days  it  was  impossible  for  us 
to  return  to  our  Fatherland.  Let  us  return  as  soon  as 
possible  to  Palestine,  occupy  and  till  its  soil  like  our  fore- 
fathers, revive  our  Hebrew  language  and  make  it  our 
living  national  tongue,  establish  a  government  of  our  own, 
and  once  more  play  the  part  of  a  nation  with  our  national 
religion  for  its  basis."  You  laugh  at  this  phantasmagoria 
of  the  Zionists,  and  consider  it  a  most  mischievous  folly, 
little  short  of  treason  and  blasphemy.  For  they  are  put- 
ting dangerous  weapons  in  the  hands  of  our  enemies  and 
maligners,  who  declare  that  the  Jews  are  but  interlopers, 
who  ought  to  be  deprived  of  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of 
citizenship  and  in  every  respect  treated  as  aliens  living  in 
the  land  on  sufferance,  by  the  grace  of  the  nation. 

Let  us  not  hide  from  ourselves  the  fact  that  the  spirit 
of  nationality  has  in  this  century  become  more  intense, 
more  self-conscious,  and  more  intolerant  than  it  ever  was 
since  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Nationality  and 
race,  for  good,  but  more  for  evil,  have  come  to  be  in  our  day 
the  vital  principles  of  every  leading  European  state.  They 
are  the  crystallizing  forces  of  all  new  political  formations 
in  the  old  world.  Community  of  race  is  declared  to  be  the 
only  natural  and  solid  foundation  of  every  commonwealth. 
The  tremendous  forces  of  nationality  are  rapidly  disinte- 
grating great  empires  such  as  Turkey  and  Austria,  which  are 
composed  of  different  races  and  nations.  Racial  affinities 


28 

are  recognized  as  the  only  power  of  national  cohesion. 
They  alone  are  held  to  give  to  a  state  a  reason  and  a  right 
for  existence.  In  former  ages  the  ruling  family  or  dynasty, 
in  some  cases  religion,  formed  the  bond  of  union  between 
the  component  parts  of  a  state.  Most  states,  therefore, 
consisted  of  populations  differing  in  race,  language,  man- 
ners, and  customs.  The  idea  of  nationality  and  race,  so 
strong  in  antiquity,  was  feebly  developed  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  played  only  an  insignificant  part  in  the  political 
schemes  of  the  rulers  and  the  sympathies  and  antipathies 
of  the  masses.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  modern 
nations  themselves  are  of  comparatively  recent  growth. 
They  were  very  long  in  the  making.  They  were  slowly 
compounded  and  recompounded  of  numerous  fragments 
of  races  and  states.  The  very  fact  that  the  medieval 
emperor  was  the  head  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which 
comprised  all  Germany,  parts  of  France,  Italy,  Holland, 
Switzerland,  Austria,  Hungary,  and  Poland,  clearly  proves 
how  undeveloped  the  idea  of  nationality  was  in  medieval 
times  and  that  it  played  at  best  but  a  secondary  part 
in  the  political  and  social  life  of  Europe.  While  the 
European  nations  were  slowly  evolving,  religion  was  the 
principal  force  that  united  or  separated  individuals  and 
kingdoms.  In  those  days  the  Jews  were  deprived  of 
human  rights  and  cruelly  persecuted  in  the  name  of 
religion.  There  was  no  racial,  no  national  antipathy 
against  them.  In  the  nineteenth  century  the  slow  pro- 
cess of  nation-making  has  been  wellnigh  completed  in 
the  Old  World.  Nationality  and  race  have  been  sub- 
stituted for  religion  as  the  dominant  principle  of  unity  and 
separation  among  men.  The  fanaticism  of  religion  has 
given  place  to  the  fanaticism  of  nationality.  It  has  come 
to  stay  for  a  long  time.  It  will  for  centuries  to  come 
direct  the  course  of  history,  fashion  the  feelings  and  deter- 
mine the  acts  of  men  in  their  individual  and  collective 
capacity. 


29 

The  principle  of  nationality,  the  fanaticism  of  race,  has 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years  risen  in  the  Old  World 
against  the  Jews.      Anti-Semitism  is  but  the  brutal  and 
wicked  expression  of  a  most  potent  force  with  which  we 
must  reckon.     Rightly  or  wrongly  the  continental  nations 
believe  that  the  Jews  are  an  alien  people,  and  as  such  are  a 
foreign  element  in  the  body  politic.     The  struggle  is  fierce 
and  disgraceful,  the  antagonism  full  of  perplexities  and 
dangers.     In  a  pamphlet  recently  published  in  Germany, 
a  celebrated  Jewish  lawyer  recommends  assimilation  in  all 
things  save  religion  as  the  only  solution.     His  arguments 
have  made  a  profound  impression  on  many  thinking  peo- 
ple in  Europe.     There   are    far-sighted    men    in  the  Old 
World  and  in  the  New  who  love  the  cause  of  Israel  better 
than  their  own  life,  who  feel  infinite  love  and  pity  for 
bruised  and  tormented  Israel,  for  Israel  the  scape-goat  of 
the  nations.     These  men,  with  hearts  full  of  sleepless  sor- 
row, have  come  to  recognize  it  as  the  will  of  God  that 
Israel  should,  in  the  course  of  time,  become  a  universal 
religion  and  church,  instead    of  being  an   isolated   race. 
Still,  in  the  Old  World  the  conditions  are  less  favorable  to 
such  a  consummation.     There  is  too  much  narrowness  and 
prejudice  on  both  sides.     Israel's  new  light  of  salvation 
must  and  will  come  from  America.     Judaism  or  Yahvism 
will  start  on  a  new  career  of  spiritual  and  moral  conquest 
in  the  New  World.     Here,  in  this  land  of  absolute  relig- 
ious liberty  and  endless  possibilities,  the  faith  of  Israel  is 
destined  to  shake  off  all  trammels  of  race  and  become  in 
all  its  activities  and  aspirations  a  universal  religion,  such 
as  it  has  always  been  in  essence  and  scope.    The  historical 
conditions  surrounding  us  in  this  country  are  indefinitely 
more  propitious  to  the  evolution  of  Israel  and  Yahvism 
into  the  church  of  humanity.     The  spirit  of  nationality 
fortunately  has   not   yet   been  developed   in   America  to 
that  degree  of  intensity  and  intolerance  which  has  caused 
it  to  become  in  Europe  in  many  respects  hostile  to  the 


30 

spirit  of  broad  humanity.  The  American  nation  is  in  a 
large  measure  still  in  the  making.  Races  physically  and 
mentally  the  most  varied  are  still  dwelling  peacefully 
together.  The  component  parts  have  not  yet  been  fused 
into  a  compact  national  unity,  and  new  foreign  elements 
are  being  constantly  added  to  the  variegated  mass.  But  a 
time  will  come  when  the  American  nation  will  be  com- 
pletely formed,  when  all  the  heterogeneous  elements  will 
be  transformed  into  an  homogeneous  people  occupying 
in  dense  numbers  the  fruitful  American  land.  Then  the 
national  spirit  will  become  as  strong  and  intolerant  here 
as  it  already  is  in  the  Old  World.  The  bars  will  be  raised 
against  foreign  immigration.  In  theory  and  practice  the 
rule  will  prevail,  "America  for  the  Americans."  Then  the 
fanaticism  of  nationality  will  be  as  virulent,  as  suspicious, 
and  dangerous  as  it  is  today  in  Europe.  The  Know- 
nothing  movement  was  but  a  premature  prelude  of  what 
will  come  to  be  in  fifty  or  a  hundred  years. 

Let  us  bestir  ourselves  during  these  years,  before  the 
storms  will  burst  upon  us.  Assimilation  by  making  spirit- 
ual conquests,  safety  by  enlarging  and  transforming  into  a 
universal  Church,  is  the  advice  which  far-seeing  wisdom 
gives  us.  Our  religion  is  dearer  to  us  than  life  itself.  We 
would  rather  be  the  outcasts  of  the  world  than  become 
faithless  to  our  faith.  But  this  very  religion  of  ours 
demands  that  we  should  preach  its  simple  and  broad 
truths  to  the  nations.  It  is  our  mission  to  be  a  blessing  to 
all  the  families  of  the  earth.  It  is  our  calling  to  teach  the 
absolute  unity  of  God  in  opposition  to  all  Pagan  adulter- 
ations 01  the  faith  of  the  prophets.  It  is  our  office  to  join 
unto  ourselves  all  those  who  are  our  brethren  in  faith, 
though  strangers  in  blood.  The  harvest  to  be  gathered  is 
rich,  it  requires  infinite  patience,  enthusiasm,  faith,  endless 
toil  on  the  part  of  many  generations.  Say  not  that  preju- 
dices are  in  the  way  of  our  making  spiritual  conquests. 
What  can  not  enthusiasm  and  faith  accomplish  with  the 


aid   of  God?     A   few  Jewish    apostles,    poor,    unknown, 
despised,  overmastered  the  proud  and  mighty  Greek  and 
Roman  World.     We  have  long  enough  been  hiding  our 
light  under  a  bushel.     We  have,  like  Jonah,  been  fleeing 
from  the  presence  of  God  and  refused  to  bring  His  mes- 
sage to  the  children  of  men.     Let  us,  even  with  our  feeble 
power,  begin  to  prepare  the  day  of  the  Lord.     At  best  it 
will  take  centuries  and  centuries  to  accomplish  the  task. 
But  ours  is  the  duty  to  begin  the  work  and  do  it  with  all 
our  heart,  all  our  soul,  and  all  our  might.     With  the  all- 
wise   and    omnipotent    God    is    left    the    completion    and 
direction  thereof.     Let  everyone  of  us  consider  himself  an 
apostle  of  Israel's  message  to  the  Gentiles.     Let  everyone 
endeavor  to  demonstrate  by  his  deeds  and  words  the  beauty 
and  nobility  of  character  shaped  by  the  forces  of  Yahvisrn. 
Let  the  conduct  of  each  of  us  be  such  that  men  who  are 
not  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  will  be  led  to  worship  the  one 
only  God  and  flock  to  His  sanctuary,  that  they  may  learn 
His  ways  and  walk  in  His  paths.     It  is  our  duty  to  under- 
stand the  ways  of  God  and  walk  as  standard-bearers  in  the 
path  of  Yahvism.     Inviting  the  Gentiles  to  the  house  of 
Yahve,  we  must  be  prepared  to  tell  them,  what  kind  of 
religion  we  offer  them  as  the  light  and  guidance  of  life 
individual  and  social.     Driven  by  a  sense  of  supreme  duty 
we  undertake,  with  many  misgivings,  the  difficult  task  of 
answering  the  question :  What  kind  of  religion  do  we  offer 
to  the  Gentiles? 

Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  One ;  thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  These  two  command- 
ments are  the  vital  and  central  principles  of  Yahvism. 
They  are  the  creative  ideas  of  our  religion,  from  which  all 
other  beliefs  and  moral  laws  spring.  Both  together  form 
the  supreme  idea  of  Yahvistic  faith  and  ethics.  One  is 
the  complement  of  the  other.  They  belong  together  like 
heart  and  head.  Without  the  belief  in  the  absolute  unity, 
perfection,  and  omnipotence  of  a  supreme  Creator,  the 


32 

unity  of  mankind  and  universal  love  have  no  eternal  basis 
to  rest  on.  Without  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  human 
race  centered  in  God,  and  the  duty  of  love  flowing  from 
the  spiritual  kinship  of  all  men,  the  unity  of  God  is  but  a 
useless  metaphysical  idea.  The  solidarity  and  brother- 
hood of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  in  other  words,  the 
love  of  our  fellowmen,  is  the  perfect  fruit  of  Israel's  ethical 
monotheism.  The  belief  in  more  than  one  God,  the  belief 
in  a  divine  duality  or  a  divine  triad  or  trinity,  the  belief 
in  no  God  or  atheism,  lead  to  immorality.  Any  religion 
but  that  which  teaches  the  absolute  oneness  of  the  Divine 
power,  is  likely  to  generate  feelings,  thoughts,  and  acts  of 
inhumanity. 

According  to  the  pagan  theory  of  nature  and  man  the 
universe  came  into  existence  and  assumed  its  present 
form  by  dint  of  its  own  inherent  blind  energy.  The 
gods  themselves  were  the  offspring  of  nature,  subject  for 
good  and  evil  to  an  inexorable  fate,  or  to  an  unconscious 
omnipotent  law  having  its  ground  outside  and  above 
the  gods.  The  world  was  not  the  creation  of  a  wise  and 
almighty  will.  Nature  was  not  the  embodiment  of  a 
Divine  plan  of  beneficence.  The  universe  was  not  sancti- 
fied and  spiritualized  by  being  regarded  as  the  visible 
revelation  of  the  beauty  and  love  of  a  holy  and  all-good 
spirit.  There  was  no  eternal  purpose  weaving  together  all 
forms  of  existence,  all  events  and  times  into  the  living 
garment  of  the  Deity.  Good  and  evil  lay  opposite  each 
other  in  nature,  both  unexplained  and  irreconcilable, 
both  accidents,  irrational,  both  acting  blindfoldly,  capri- 
ciously, without  a  will  and  without  a  reason.  The  gods 
were  merely  lucky  aristocrats  whom  a  whim  of  nature  had 
produced  and  endowed  with  certain  limited  powers.  They 
created  nothing;  their  being  shed  no  light  on  the  mystery 
of  existence,  nor  on  the  problem  of  good  and  evil  in  nature. 
They  were  no  types  of  ideal  goodness.  On  the  contrary, 
they  concentrated  within  themselves  all  the  seeming 


33 

contradictions  of  nature,  all  her  wild  impulses  and  cruel 
freaks,  all  her  apparent  brutal  selfishness  and  heartless 
indifference  to  suffering.  The  gods  were  at  war  with  one 
another,  because  each  one  represented  only  a  part.  Each 
one  was  the  patron,  or  father  and  protector,  of  a  limited 
section  of  the  human  race,  and  stood  to  the  rest  of  man- 
kind in  a  relation  of  hostility.  As  there  was  no  unity  of 
the  Divine  power,  so  there  was  no  unity  of  mankind. 
There  were  as  many  mankinds  as  there  were  gods,  there 
were  as  many  gods  as  there  were  peoples  or  tribes.  Every 
people  looked  upon  all  the  others  as  standing  outside  the 
fellowship  of  its  own  humanity,  because  there  was  to  their 
mind  no  Divine  unity  embracing  all  the  children  of  men 
and  welding  them  together  into  a  covenant  of  brother- 
hood, worshiping  the  same  common  Maker  and  Father. 
With  profound  insight  in  the  origin,  nature,  and  results 
of  idolatry  or  polytheism,  the  prophets  of  Yahve  recog- 
nized in  it  the  root  of  all  evil  and  sin,  and  hated  it  as  the 
deadly  enemy  of  humanity,  as  the  natural  foe  of  justice  and 
mercy  and  holiness.  The  pagan  was  habitually  unjust,  and 
cruel  to  all  men  but  his  own  tribesmen.  The  reason  is 
obvious  enough.  He  did  not  regard  them  as  his  fellowmen. 
He  despised  them  as  inferior  beings,  sprung  from  a  con- 
temptible ancestry.  They  did  not  worship  the  same 
gods,  nor  stand  under  their  protecting  egis.  The  idea 
of  humanity  was  unknown  to  heathendom.  The  word 
"hurnanitas"  meant  politeness,  urbanity,  gentlemanly 
behavior.  Humanity  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  spiritual 
unity  of  mankind  has  its  vital  roots  in  the  belief  that 
all  the  races  of  men  have  their  common  origin  in  one 
universal  God  who  has  dowered  them  all  with  equal  and 
unalienable  rights,  and  knit  them  together  in  bonds  of 
mutual  obligations  and  loving  kindness.  The  pagan 
recognized  only  his  compatriot,  his  fellow-citizen,  as  his 
fellow-man.  Man  as  man  had  no  worth,  no  rights,  no 
claims,  no  duties.  The  pagan  could  not,  as  the  Israelite, 


34 

look  with  awe  upon  all  men  as  wonderfully  and  fearfully 
made,  as  beings  clothed  with  the  godlike  dignity  of  man- 
kind bestowed  upon  them  by  the  Spirit  of  all.  Right  and 
duty  were  merely  social  laws,  legal  ordinances.  But  they 
had  nothing  absolute  and  universal  in  them,  simply 
because  in  the  pagan  theory  of  the  world  there  was  no 
absolute  good  will,  no  universal  reason,  from  which  to 
derive  the  moral  laws  as  eternal  revelations  of  the  Divine 
attributes.  Love  was  merely  physical  love,  the  natural 
family  affections  or  the  sentiment  of  friendship  of  one  indi- 
vidual for  another.  But  it  was  not  the  pure  spiritual  love 
of  man  as  man,  after  the  type  of  the  love  of  God  for  all 
mortals;  it  was  not  mercy  for  the  finite  image  of  the 
Eternal  whose  mercy  extends  over  all  His  creatures. 

In  polytheism  sin  in  its  deepest  moral  and  religious 
sense  was  unknown.  Sin  was  dreaded  because  of  its  evil 
consequences.  It  was  viewed  as  an  external  injurious  act 
and  was  punished  by  the  human  and  divine  guardians  of 
the  state  as  rebellion  against  the  established  ordinances  of 
society.  Sin  was  not  an  inward  self-debasement,  a  falling 
away  from  the  infinite  moral  dignity  of  humanity  dwelling 
in  us,  a  wilful  breaking  away  from  the  life  of  God,  in 
which  we  are  to  share  by  walking  with  Him  in  His  ways. 
Sin  was  simply  an  infraction  of  a  statute.  It  would  cease 
to  be  sin  if  the  powers  that  be,  divine  and  human,  chose 
to  reverse  the  statute.  Sin  is  not,  according  to  pagan 
theology,  absolutely  abominable,  because  it  is  a  departure 
from  the  holiness  and  perfection  of  the  one  only  God,  the 
life  and  essence  of  all  being.  It  is  not  rebellion  against 
the  everlasting  canons  of  universal  love. 

Polytheism  must  needs  foster  vice;  for  it  springs  from 
the  belief  that  the  different  parts  of  nature  have  separate 
lives  and  powers  and  are  represented  by  various  gods  who 
have  the  qualities  of  the  phenomena  they  stand  for  and 
typify.  Every  part  of  nature  that  is  worshiped  must  be 
obeyed.  The  bestial  impulses,  as  well  as  the  cruelties  and 


35 

tortures  inflicted  by  nature,  are  manifestations  of  divine 
powers,  which  should  be  imitated  by  man.  Hence,  the 
monstrous  practices  of  idolatrous  nations  against  which  the 
writers  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New  hurl  their 
fierce  denunciations. 

As  has  been  said  before,  the  pagan  mind  could  make 
no  serious  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  good  and  evil. 
For  in  polytheism  neither  good  nor  evil  had  a  reason  for 
existence,  because  they  could  not  be  conceived  as  rooted 
in  universal  existence.  No  one  God,  nor  all  the  gods 
together,  had  created  the  world.  Hence  no  god  could  be 
believed  to  be  the  source  of  all  good  nor  of  all  evil  in 
nature  and  history.  There  was  no  almighty  being,  in 
whose  manifestations  good  and  evil  were  pitted  as  con- 
trasts. Good  and  evil  fell  apart  as  causeless,  purposeless, 
and  meaningless  phenomena.  There  was  no  room  in 
polytheism  for  the  hope  that  evil  would  in  the  fullness  of 
time  be  overcome  and  rooted  out  of  the  world,  since  there 
was  no  omnipotent  power  of  good  to  accomplish  it.  To 
the  pagan  mind  the  history  of  nature  and  of  man  was 
merely  a  succession  of  events.  It  did  not  begin  in  all-wise 
and  all-good  omnipotent  Will,  nor  would  it  end  in  the 
unfolding  and  victory  of  the  universal  good.  We  must  not, 
however,  fail  to  recognize  in  polytheism  the  germs  of  true 
religion,  the  beginnings  of  an  exalted  ethics  of  humanity. 


II. 


GERMS  OF  RELIGIOUS  AND  ETHICAL  TRUTH  IN 
POLYTHEISM. 

Taking  a  broad  view  of  the  spiritual  history  of  man- 
kind as  one  continuous  life  and  growth,  we  can  not  but 
believe  that  polytheism,  too,  was  a  revelation  of  the 
Infinite,  a  necessary  stage  in  the  unfolding  of  the  spirit  of 
God  in  the  human  race.  God  has  left  none  of  His  chil- 
dren without  a  ray  of  His  light.  The  ways  of  God 
through  all  the  domain  of  nature  and  of  mind  are  those  of 
gradual  evolution  from  lower  to  ever  higher  forms,  from 
the  imperfect  to  the  more  perfect,  from  faint  streaks  of 
dawning  truth  unto  the  brightness  of  the  perfect  day.  But 
of  this  we  shall  speak  more  fully  when  we  come  to  treat  of 
the  subject  of  Revelation  and  religious  development.  In 
believing  that  a  divine  being  was  indwelling,  and  presiding 
over,  every  part  and  phenomenon  of  nature,  polytheism 
gave  expression  to  the  truth  that  Nature  is  no  weltering 
mass  of  blind  matter,  no  soulless  mechanism,  but  is  quick 
with  conscious  life  and  full  of  superhuman  divine  power. 
This  is  an  immense  gain  made  for  true  religion.  In  fact, 
monotheism  could  not  have  arisen  at  all,  if  the  pagan 
theory  of  the  world  had  not  prepared  the  fruitful  parent 
idea,  out  of  which  grew  the  belief  in  one  almighty  all- 
pervading  Intelligence,  the  Maker,  Preserver,  and  Ruler  of 
heaven  and  earth  and  all  they  contain. 

The  human  mind,  even  in  its  undeveloped  religious 
stage,  in  the  polytheistic  state,  had  grasped  the  funda- 
mental idea  on  which  all  religion  and  philosophy  will 
forever  rest;  the  idea  namely:  mind,  life,  feeling,  will 
power,  thought  is  not  confined  to  the  brain  of  men  and 
animals ;  it  is  not  absolutely  bound  up  with  a  bodily  frame. 
Conscious  life  exists  outside  of  man  and  animals  and 


37 

manifests  its  energy  in  every  possible  form,  visible  or 
invisible,  of  the  external  world.  Again,  the  conscious  life 
did  not  for  the  first  time  in  the  existence  of  the  world 
make  its  appearance  in  man  and  his  inferior  fellow- 
creatures.  Gods,  similar  in  character,  qualities,  loves,  and 
hates  to  man  or  beast  but  superior  to  them  in  power  and 
length  of  days,  have  existed  in  the  heavens  above  and  the 
earth  beneath  and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth,  long 
before  the  human  race  or  any  animate  being  had  been  born 
on  this  globe.  The  monotheism  of  the  prophets  in  its 
highest  reaches,  still  firmly  roots  in  this  primary  spiritual 
belief,  in  the  belief  of  the  pagans.  For  the  central  idea  of 
our  faith  is:  A  universal  creative  Intelligence  animates 
and  pervades  all  nature;  before  the  mountains  were  brought 
forth  and  the  earth  was  born,  and  the  world,  even  from 
Eternity  to  Eternity  He  was  God. 

The  fact  is,  the  belief  that  there  are  in  the  external 
world  entities,  powers,  activities,  and  tendencies  like  those 
which  distinguish  the  inner  world  of  mind,  lies  at  the  very 
root  of  all  religious  knowledge,  is  the  necessary  condition 
of  all  truth.  Without  this  pre-supposition,  truth  cognition 
would  be  impossible.  How  could  the  mind  comprehend 
the  world  without,  if  that  world  had  nothing  in  common 
with  mind?  How  could  the  intelligence  have  any  knowl- 
edge of  nature,  if  nature  were  not  somehow  assumed  to  be 
related  to  intelligence?  How  could  the  things  of  nature 
be  translated  into  thought,  if  they  were  not  believed  to  be 
written  in  the  characters  of  thought  and  could  not  be 
spelled  out  by  the  mind? 

The  most  primitive  men  unconsciously  started  in  all 
their  thoughts,  beliefs,  and  phantastic  vagaries  from  this 
cardinal  truth.  The  most  advanced  minds  of  prophets 
and  philosophers  base  all  knowledge  and  all  faith  upon 
this  root-principle  of  the  intelligence.  The  worshipers 
of  Baal  and  Astarte  and  other  gods  shared  the  belief  in 
mindlike  powers  existing  and  acting  in  nature  outside  of 


38 

man,  with  the  prophets  of  Yahve,  who  is  the  spirit  of  all 
spirits,  the  cause  and  ground  of  all  being.  With  this  far- 
reaching  difference  however :  in  polytheism  conscious- 
ness, intelligence,  will,  in  nature  is  broken  up  into  a  vast 
number  of  separate  beings,  into  a  teeming  multitude  of 
divine  personalities  or  gods.  Every  part  of  nature  exists 
by  itself  and  for  itself,  and  in  and  above  every  part  there 
is  a  divine  being,  the  conscious  counterpart  of  the  material 
object.  In  the  monotheism  of  the  prophets  all  nature  is 
one  in  origin,  cause,  and  purpose,  a  living  rational 
unity,  a  growing  harmony  in  Yahve,  the  universal  Reason, 
the  creative  almighty  Will,  in  whom  all  things  and  all 
spirits  live,  move,  and  have  their  being. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  explain  the  rise  of  moral 
monotheism  in  Israel  by  showing  its  points  of  connection 
with  polytheism.  Just  as  little  can  Man  be  explained  by 
pointing  out  the  links  of  kinship  subsisting  between  him 
and  the  ape.  But  it  is  in  every  respect  important  to  know 
the  basis  of  truth  common  to  the  partially  developed  and 
to  the  most  highly  evolved  religion,  and  to  bring  into 
view  the  manifold  service  rendered  by  polytheism  in  pre- 
paring the  seed  and  the  soil  for  monotheism. 

In  its  own  crude  and  materialistic  way  polytheism  taught 
with  the  utmost  emphasis  the  fundamental  religious  truth 
that  man  stands  in  closest  relations  to  his  God  and  that  his 
nature  is  of  kin  to  that  of  the  Deity.  Practically  this  belief 
is  the  most  important,  the  most  influential  of  all  religious 
doctrines.  It  brings  down  religion  from  the  region  of 
mere  speculation  and  makes  it  the  most  human  of  all 
affairs.  It  elevates  man  to  the  Divine  and  brings  the 
Divine  down  to  the  heart  and  into  the  very  home  of  man. 
This  faith  has  builded  an  ideal  ladder  between  heaven 
and  earth  on  which  divine  powers  descend  to  mortal  men, 
to  protect,  instruct  them,  and  impart  dignity  to  their  life, 
and  on  which  again  mortal  men  ascend  to  share  in  the 
qualities,  in  the  aims,  and  the  glory  of  the  Divinity.  Man 


39 

is  godlike,  man  is  a  child  of  the  Deity — this  was  the  intui- 
tive faith  alike  of  paganism  and  Yahvism.  Only,  the 
pagans  took  their  godlikeness  and  their  descent  from  the 
divine  in  a  literal  and  physical  sense.  The  members  of 
every  family,  of  every  tribe  and  people  believed  themselves, 
in  the  material  acceptation  of  the  word,  to  be  lineal 
descendants  of  their  ancestral  god,  to  have  the  blood  of 
their  divine  forefather  and  ruler  in  their  veins.  As  their 
gods  were  identical  with  visible  parts  of  nature,  so  was, 
in  their  opinion,  the  relationship  between  men  and  their 
deity  of  a  naturalistic  and  sensuous  kind.  The  bond  of 
union  between  them  was  mainly  the  kinship  of  animal- 
ism. Still,  low  as  was  the  pagan  conception  of  the 
mutual  relations  between  man  and  his  god,  it  was  yet 
the  fruitful  germ  out  of  which  there  arose  in  the  religion 
of  the  prophets  the  sublime  conception  of  man  being  made 
after  the  spiritual  likeness  and  in  the  moral  similitude 
of  the  Lord  of  all  spirits,  of  Yahve,  the  creative  Reason 
and  Love.  Countless  ages  had  believed  that  man  was 
the  physical  image  and  offspring  of  his  gods.  Thereby  the 
human  mind  was  prepared  to  receive  the  message  of 
monotheism  that  man  is  the  spiritual  image  of  the  perfect 
Spirit,  that  the  soul  of  man  is  a  lamp  of  God,  that  Divine 
love  and  human  righteousness  are  the  true  ties  of  kinship 
between  the  Creator  and  His  creature.  Thus  polythe- 
ism is  also  in  this  respect  seen  to  have  been  the  natural 
precursor  and  path-maker  of  monotheism.  There  is  no 
break  in  the  development  of  the  spirit  of  mankind.  Even 
the  greatest  spiritual  revolution,  the  victorious  rise  of 
monotheism  in  Israel,  was  an  evolution  from  pre-existing 
forms  of  belief,  and  an  involution  of  what  was  truest  and 
best  in  the  religious  life  of  former  ages. 

This  is  evident  from  other  points  of  organic  contact  and 
transition  between  polytheism  and  monotheism.  Take 
the  case  of  idol-worship  or  the  adoration  of  images  repre- 
senting gods  in  human  form.  The  vast  majority  of  the 


40 

human  race  has  from  time  immemorial  to  this  day  been 
clinging  to  idolatry,  a  mode  of  worship  which  the  prophets 
denounced  as  the  abomination  of  abominations,  and  which 
we  too  can  not  help  regarding  as  a  blasphemous  and 
degrading  practice.  But  we  must  be  broad  enough  to 
recognize  that  idolatry  helped  on  the  religious  education 
of  the  race.  By  presenting  the  gods  to  the  eye  of  the 
worshiper  in  the  figure  of  men,  though  of  superhuman 
stature  and  majesty,  it  impressed  upon  the  mind  of  the 
believer  that  the  dread  ruling  powers  of  nature  were 
related  in  their  being  and  ways  to  man  and  that  they  pos- 
sessed the  attributes  of  humanity.  For  thousands  and 
thousands  of  years  the  worship  of  the  Divine  under  the 
symbol  of  man,  the  highest  and  noblest  of  all  known  crea- 
tures, tended  in  the  eyes  of  the  worshipers  to  humanize  and 
moralize  the  gods  and  to  vary  them,  in  appearance  and 
action,  from  the  beast-gods  and  the  bird-gods  of  still  older 
and  lower  religions.  The  ground  was  thus  prepared  by 
idolatry  for  the  sublime  conception  and  the  pure  wor- 
ship of  God  as  taught  by  the  prophets  of  Yahve.  God 
is  not  a  man  nor  the  son  of  man.  He  is  unlike  anything 
visible  or  material.  Nothing  corporeal  and  mortal  should 
be  compared  to  Him,  though  it  can  be  exalted  in  beauty 
above  all  created  things.  But  the  spirit  of  man  is  the 
symbol  of  the  Eternal,  the  soul  of  man  is  the  faint  image  of 
the  universal  Soul,  the  moral  qualities  of  man  are  a  revela- 
tion of  the  attributes  of  His  perfection.  In  other  words, 
God  is  likest  that  which  is  highest,  holiest,  and  divinest 
in  man  ;  like  reason  shining  in  darkness,  like  justice  crush- 
ing the  head  of  oppression,  like  love  going  forth  to  all 
flesh.  Having  gained  an  absolute  victory  within  the  Jew- 
ish church,  monotheism  may  now  without  fear  of  danger 
freely  acknowledge  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  it  owes  to 
the  preparatory  work  and  influence  of  idolatry. 

The  belief  in  an  all-wise  and  all-just  Divine  Providence 
shaping  the  destinies  of  individuals  and  nations,  quickening 


mankind  to  ever  higher  ends,  may  be  traced  to  its  humble 
and  child-like  beginnings  in  primitive  religion,  and  be 
followed  along  its  upward  course  through  the  great  relig- 
ions of  Asia  and  of  classic  antiquity.  The  pagan  of  all 
times  and  climes  had  his  tutelary  god  always  with  him, 
dwelling  with  him  under  his  roof  as  the  divine  lord  and 
father  of  the  household.  The  family  god  watched  over 
his  human  children,  shielded  them  from  evil,  warned  them 
against  danger,  and  looked  out  for  their  good.  This  was 
certainly  special  providence  in  the  most  literal  sense. 
Every  tribe,  every  people,  believed  itself  to  be  under  the 
perpetual  jurisdiction  and  guidance  of  its  tribal  or  national 
god.  Every  people  carried  on  the  business  of  life  in  peace 
and  war  in  the  firm  conviction  that  the  eye  of  their  god  was 
observing  them,  that  his  wisdom  was  leading  them,  and 
his  power  rendering  them  help.  Monotheism  took  over 
this  inspiring  belief  as  an  heritage  from  the  religious  past 
of  mankind.  What  a  wonderful  transformation  this  belief 
underwent  in  the  monotheistic  atmosphere  of  Yahvism, 
the  religion  of  humanity!  The  providence  the  pagans 
believed  in  was  selfish,  narrow,  tribal,  unjust,  short-sighted. 
Providence  was  favoritism.  The  tutelary  god  had  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  protecting  his  people  or  his  worshiper. 
Vast  numbers  of  men  in  our  day  are  in  this  respect,  as 
in  so  many  other  regards,  thorough  pagans.  The  rulers, 
priests,  and  writers  of  every  people  speak  of  God  as  if  He 
were  the  special  Protector  and  Providence  of  His  favorite 
nation  and  cared  very  little  for  the  rest  of  mankind. 
They  sing  solemn  Te  Deums  for  victories  vouchsafed  them 
by  their  God  ;  they  intone  hymns  of  thanksgiving  to  their 
God  who  fought  their  battles  and  helped  them  to  slaughter 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  human  beings.  The 
Providence  of  the  prophets  is  no  respecter  of  persons  nor 
of  nations.  He  guides  by  His  counsel  all  individuals, 
and  all  the  tribes  of  men.  All  men  are  alike  His  children 
and  His  care  and  mercy  extend  over  all  His  creatures.  In 


42 

polytheism  there  are  many  providences  which  are  at  war 
with  one  another.  There  are  as  many  providences  as  there 
are  families  and  peoples.  In  the  religion  of  Israel's  mono- 
theism there  is  one  God,  one  humanity,  one  impartial  and 
all-loving  Providence,  universal,  unfailing,  all-wise.  Still, 
if  the  families  of  the  earth  had  not  for  countless  genera- 
tions been  accustomed  to  trust  in  a  tribal  and  egotistical 
providence,  the  prophets  of  Yahve  probably  would  not  have 
been  able  to  imbue  men  with  the  belief  that  the  eye  of 
one  only  God  is  upon  all  His  children,  that  all  mankind  is 
being  led  by  Him  toward  ideal  goals. 


43 

III. 

THE  UNITY  OF  MANKIND. 

The  idea  of  an  inalienable  and  indestructible  right 
inherent  in  every  individual,  the  idea  of  a  divine  right  to 
life,  liberty,  property,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  vested 
in  every  man  by  virtue  of  his  godlike  personality,  the  idea 
of  justice  wide  as  humanity,  holy  and  awful  as  God,  is  the 
cardinal  ethical  principle  of  Yahvism.  To  secure  the 
equal  rights  of  all  men  because  all  are  equal  before  their 
common  Maker,  to  enforce  the  inviolable  dignity  and 
sanctity  of  every  human  being  because  he  is  the  spiritual 
image  of  the  Most  High,  to  inculcate  the  infinite  importance 
of  meting  out  justice  in  private  and  social  life,  to  rich  and 
poor,  to  the  native  and  the  stranger,  with  an  impartial 
hand,  this  is  the  chiefest  burden  of  the  Prophets,  this  is 
the  deathless  mission  of  the  religion  which  we  offer  to 
the  Gentiles.  This  principle  of  universal  justice  without 
regard  to  kinship,  nationality,  and  creed,  the  love  of  right 
and  equity  passing  the  love  of  life  itself,  the  hatred  of 
injustice  and  oppression  stronger  than  death,  spring  from 
the  two  cardinal  beliefs  of  prophetic  monotheism,  from  the 
belief  in  the  absolute  oneness  and  goodness  of  God  and 
the  belief  in  the  unity  of  mankind  centered  in  an  all-just 
Creator,  Lawgiver,  and  Judge.  These  beliefs  are  the  ulti- 
mate source  of  right,  the  living  fountain  from  which 
justice  flows  for  all  the  children  of  man.  According  to 
every  other  theology,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the 
religion  of  Yahve,  mankind  is  broken  up  into  several 
parts,  which  are  separated  by  distinctions  of  race  or 
nationality,  or  marked  off  from  one  another  by  religious 
differences.  According  to  every  other  theory  of  the  world 
and  of  society,  the  fulness  of  human  rights  is  conditioned 
upon  the  accident  of  birth,  upon  community  of  descent  or 


44 

community  of  faith  or  upon  both.  To  the  Athenian  only 
a  full-blooded  Greek  who  worshiped  the  gods  of  Hellas 
was  a  genuine  man  and  alone  was  entitled  to  the  fulness 
of  human  rights.  The  outside  barbarians  were  in  his 
opinion  no  full  men.  They  possessed  no  rights  which  the 
high-caste  Greeks,  the  favorites  of  the  Olympian  gods, 
were  in  conscience  bound  to  respect.  They  held  their  life 
and  property  only  on  sufferance.  Whatever  rights  of  pro- 
tection they  enjoyed,  while  dwelling  among  the  Greeks, 
were  accorded  to  them  as  an  act  of  grace  by  the  Hellenic 
gods  and  their  privileged  worshipers.  Closely  examined, 
among  those  believing  in  more  than  one  god  right  is 
merely  a  privilege,  a  prerogative  granted  by  some  Divine 
Power  to  those  he  loves.  For  how  can  a  god  who  is  not 
the  Lord  and  Father  of  all  men  command  laws  of  justice 
that  shall  be  binding  on  all  men?  How  can  a  being,  who 
is  not  himself  absolute  and  eternal,  be  the  author  of  abso- 
lute statutes  of  righteousness  and  of  everlasting  ordi- 
nances of  right?  How  can  social  right  and  equity  be 
derived  from  a  god  who  is  himself  believed  to  be  constantly 
at  war  with  other  gods  and  with  men?  The  moral  laws 
and  the  ideals  of  the  perfect  life  can  not  derive  their 
sanction  from  gods  who  are  themselves  held  to  be  imperfect 
and  tainted  with  selfishness  and  cruelty. 

The  idea  of  universal  justice  can  be  cherished,  and  the 
attempt  to  realize  it  be  made,  only  by  men  who  firmly 
believe  in  one  universal  God,  in  an  absolute  righteous 
Will,  an  infinite  Power  that  is  perfect  in  all  His  ways.  Jus- 
tice in  the  true  sense  of  broadest  humanity  was  unknown 
and  inconceivable  outside  Israel.  It  was  unknown  even 
in  Israel  before  it  was  conceived  in  all  its  depth  and 
grandeur  by  the  prophets  and  proclaimed  by  them  and 
defended  in  the  face  of  fierce  opposition  offered  by  the  rich 
and  powerful.  Justice  was,  therefore,  everywhere  except  in 
the  ideal  world  of  prophetic  monotheism,  merely  an  exten- 
sion of  the  mutual  relation  subsisting  between  the  members 


45 

of  the  family  group  to  a  wider  circle.  All  the  members  of 
the  city  or  state  were  regarded  as  relations,  and  were 
expected  to  deal  with  one  another  as  brothers.  All  people 
who  were  beyond  the  pale  of  the  assumed  brotherhood 
were  outcasts  and  outlaws.  In  this  respect,  as  in  so  many 
others,  the  Chinese  are  the  most  consistent,  the  most 
ancient  and  pagan  of  all  nations.  The  whole  theory  and 
practice  of  Chinese  social  order  rests  on  the  family  idea. 
All  Chinamen  are  officially  and  religiously  considered  as 
kinsmen,  as  members  of  one  huge  family.  The  emperor 
is  obeyed  and  venerated  as  the  father,  priest,  and  lawgiver 
of  all  his  subjects.  He  is,  in  official  parlance  and  in  the 
language  and  belief  of  the  masses,  held  to  be  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  heaven-god  and  the  earth-goddess. 

According  to  the  teachings  of  unadulterated  Christi- 
anity, according  to  the  dogmatic  theology  of  the  trinitarian 
churches,  there  is  really  no  unity  of  mankind,  neither 
with  God  in  heaven  nor  with  men  on  earth,  neither  in 
this  world  nor  in  the  world  beyond  the  grave.  Those 
who  believe  in  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  those  who  believe  in  the  redeeming  death  and 
saving  blood  of  the  Savior,  are  brothers  in  Christ  Jesus ; 
they  alone  are  saved  and  exalted;  they  alone  are  called 
the  children  of  God.  They  enjoy  the  favor  of  the  Father 
and  are  beloved  of  the  Sou.  They  are  visited,  purified, 
and  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  them  are  reserved 
the  bountiful  blessings  of  Divine  grace  and  love.  They 
are  saved  from  the  power  of  evil  in  this  world  and 
they  are  sure  to  enter  Paradise  in  the  hereafter.  But 
those  who  refuse  to  believe  in  the  Trinity  and  in  the 
sacrificial  death  of  Jesus,  because  their  reason  and  faith 
can  not  accept  such  a  dogma,  stand  outside  the  consecrated 
precincts  of  the  Christian  brotherhood.  They  are  strangers 
to  God  and  strangers  to  the  community  of  Jesus  Christ. 
They  are  separated  by  a  vast  gulf  from  the  congregation 
of  God.  They  are  not  at  one  with  their  Maker,  because 


46 

they  lack  the  mediation  of  Christ's  atoning  love.  They 
live  unredeemed  and  unblessed  on  earth,  and  in  the  here- 
after they  will  through  all  eternity  suffer  untold  torments 
as  a  condign  punishment  for  having  lacked  the  true  faith 
and  for  having  wantonly  declined  the  proffered  means  of 
salvation.  On  one  side  stand  the  wretched  non-Christian 
goats,  and  on  the  other  the  blessed  Christian  lambs. 
Would  you  call  this  a  real  unity  of  mankind  in  one  all- 
just  and  all-loving  God? 

Christian  philosophers  are  asserting  with  endless  reiter- 
ation and  infinite  unction,  that  of  all  religions  Christianity 
alone  proclaimed  the  unity  of  mankind  and  the  brother- 
hood of  all  men.  But  the  Christianity  which  they  thus 
glorify  is  not  really  Christianity.  They  sail  under  false 
colors.  They  make  a  false  use  of  the  name  Christianity 
which  they  first  emptied  of  all  its  true  and  distinctive 
contents.  Smitten  with  judicial  blindness  as  to  the  religion 
of  Israel,  swayed  by  narrow  inherited  prejudices,  they  first 
misrepresent  Yahvism  in  a  spirit  of  wilful  ignorance  and 
rob  it  of  its  glory  and  merit.  They  take  the  imperishable 
religious  truth,  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  and  godlike 
dignity  of  all  men,  and  give  it  the  name  of  Christianity  and 
pit  it  against  the  faith  of  Israel  as  something  infinitely 
higher  and  diviner.  They  are  self-deceiving  deceivers. 
Sure  it  is,  Jesus  was  a  teacher  of  Yahvism  and  not  of 
Christianity.  Sure  it  is,  Jesus  was  no  Christian  in  the 
trinitarian  sense,  and  in  any  other  sense  there  is  no  Chris- 
tian religion.  He  taught  the  unity  of  mankind  just  like 
the  other  prophets  and  wise  men  of  Israel.  But  trinitarian 
Christianity  rejects  the  unity  and  brotherhood  of  mankind 
in  the  sense  it  was  revealed  by  God  through  His  prophets. 
Mankind  is  divided  into  two  distinct  parts,  into  those  who 
believe  in  the  blessed  Trinity  and  those  who  deny  it,  or 
have  never  heard  of  it.  The  latter  are  abandoned  of  God, 
no  fountain  of  grace  for  them,  no  treasures  of  salvation  in 
store  for  them.  The  holy  spirit  is  not  in  them,  though  they 


47 

walk  in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and  long  to  be  perfect 
with  the  Lord  their  God.  The  curse  of  original  sin  rests 
upon  them  and  keeps  their  soul  in  a  state  of  degradation. 
They  have  not  been  recognized  by  God  the  Father  by  acquir- 
ing, through  faith,  a  share  in  the  great  sacrifice  of  atone- 
ment made  by  Jesus.  They  are  not  born  again  to  the  life 
spiritual  in  Christ  through  the  miracle  of  baptism.  They 
are  the  unregenerate  children  of  Adam  and  form  a  lower, 
purely  carnal  species  of  mankind.  High  above  this 
division  of  fallen  and  unbelieving  humanity  are  the  child- 
ren of  light  and  faith,  the  blessed  of  God,  the  living 
members  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Again  and  again  they 
renew  their  life  by  assimilating  to  themselves  through  the 
mystery  of  the  communion  the  flesh  and  the  blood  of  the 
Redeemer.  They  alone  are  the  true  people  of  God.  To 
them  has  been  vouchsafed  dominion  and  glory  and  wisdom. 
To  them  the  earth  has  been  given  as  an  inheritance. 
They  are  the  true  heirs  to  whatever  things  beautiful,  to 
whatever  things  true,  and  whatever  things  good  have  been 
accomplished  in  ages  past  by  all  nations  and  religions,  by 
the  prophets,  poets,  thinkers,  and  truth-seeking  heroes  of 
all  times.  All  peoples,  all  civilizations  have  toiled  and 
plowed  and  sown  that  the  Christian  brotherhood  may  reap 
a  rich  harvest.  The  rest  of  mankind,  unredeemed,  unre- 
generated,  inferior,  are  weltering  in  religious  darkness  and 
pining  away  in  spiritual  poverty  outside  the  Christian  city 
of  God.  They  exist  on  sufferance,  and  the  followers  of 
Christ  are  their  superiors  and  rulers  by  the  grace  of  God. 
The  heathen,  the  Jews,  and  so-called  infidels  are  children 
of  the  handmaidens,  but  the  Christians  are  children  of  the 
true  spouse,  the  church  of  Christ  Jesus. 

Such  is  the  unity  of  mankind  which  genuine  Christi- 
anity, which  the  trinitarian  churches  teach.  It  is  infinitely 
superior  to  the  pagan  conception  of  man.  In  paganism 
the  distinction  between  man  and  man,  tribe  and  tribe,  is 
of  a  physical  and  racial  nature.  There  is,  theoretically  at 


48 

least,  no  possibility  of  members  of  one  people  or  race 
crossing  the  lines  of  separation  and  blending  with  those  of 
another.  In  Christianity  the  distinction  is  spiritual,  relig- 
ious. Any  man,  whatever  his  people  and  race,  may 
become  a  Christian  and  share  in  the  privileges  of  grace  and 
prerogatives  of  salvation  of  the  chosen  part  of  mankind. 
No  bars  are  raised  against  any  man,  whatever  his  descent; 
no  wall  shuts  any  man  from  the  Christian  community. 
The  gates  are  wide  to  all  comers.  Still  the  distinction 
between  man  and  man  is  there  deep  and  far-reaching. 
The  separation  between  one  part  of  mankind  and  the 
other  is  due  to  Divine  favoritism,  not  to  Divine  justice.  It 
is  by  an  arbitrary  act  of  God  that  he  dooms  vast  numbers 
of  men  to  moral  degradation  and  spiritual  death,  because 
their  reason  can  not  accept  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity  and 
the  other  central  Christian  doctrines.  On  the  other  hand, 
He  exalts  those  who  choose  to  believe  in  the  Christian 
mysteries,  and  brings  them  nigh  unto  Himself  and  pours 
out  upon  them  all  His  mercy  and  crowns  them  with  loving 
kindness.  This  is  indeed  election  with  divine  vengeance. 
The  Calvinistic  dogma  of  election  is  the  most  logical  and 
consistent  expression  of  the  more  general  Christian  belief 
in  Divine  election  or  favoritism.  In  Calvinism  there 
are  but  a  few  lucky  mortals  whom  the  whim  of  the  Deity 
picks  out  for  salvation  and  blessedness,  while  the  rest  are 
left  to  perish  in  spite  of  their  correct  belief.  In  the 
Catholic  Church  all  Roman  Catholics  are  chosen  and 
saved.  Even  the  broadest  trinitarian  churches  teach  that 
a  yawning  gulf  separates  the  worshipers  of  Christ  from 
those  who  deny  Him. 

The  Christian  theory  which  separates  man  from  the 
fellowship  of  man,  according  to  creed,  which  divides 
humanity  into  two  distinct  parts,  into  God-abandoned 
deniers  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  and  into  the  redeemed 
children  of  the  triune  God,  has  done  as  much  mischief  as 
the  pagan  principle  of  kinship  and  tribal  divinities.  As 


49 

long  as  the  trinitarian  dogma  of  salvation  and  election  was 
firmly  believed  in,  it  sowed  everywhere  the  baneful  seeds 
of  disunion  and  hatred  and  was  the  parent  of  infinite  woes, 
physical  and  mental.  The  spiritual  pride  and  selfishness 
of  men  caused  the  practice  to  come  up  to  and  surpass  the 
theory.  From  the  time  trinitarian  Christianity  ascended 
the  throne  and  became  mistress  of  the  western  world  until 
the  spirit  of  Yahvistic  humanity  began  to  resist  and  restrain 
it,  the  pagans,  the  heretics,  the  Jews,  and  the  Moham- 
medans were  held  not  to  be  equal  to  the  Christians  before 
God  and  the  law,  and  were  treated  accordingly  with  pitiless 
injustice  and  often  with  remorseless  cruelty.  True,  even 
in  the  darkest  days  of  the  Middle  Ages  Christianity  did 
a  vast  deal  toward  elevating  and  humanizing  the  masses. 
The  Church  tried  to  knit  together  many  nations  and  races 
and  kingdoms  into  a  spiritual  brotherhood.  But  those  out- 
side the  Christian  church  were  dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of 
contempt  and  harsh  exclusiveness.  Attributing  to  God 
himself  the  injustice  of  loving  and  saving  the  orthodox 
believer,  and  abhorring  and  condemning  the  unbelievers, 
the  Christians  strove  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  the  Almighty. 
For  this  reason  they  had  diverse  measures  of  justice  for 
Christians  and  non-Christians,  or  rather  the  Christian  alone 
was  believed  to  have  an  indefeasible  claim  to  the  rights  of 
man  and  the  privileges  of  human  brotherhood.  Even  in 
our  day  the  spirit  of  universal  justice,  the  spirit  of  all- 
embracing  humanity,  such  as  lived  and  worked  miracles 
of  salvation  through  the  prophets  from  Moses  down  to 
Jesus,  is  far  from  having  completely  triumphed  over  the 
medieval  spirit  of  superstitious  pride  and  intolerance. 
The  Christian  still  believes  that  he  stands  nearer  to  the 
throne  and  heart  of  God  and  possesses  larger  rights  than 
Jews,  Mohammedans,  and  pagans.  And  what  he  believes 
he  still  practices  to  a  large  extent.  At  best  the  non- 
Christian  is  contemptuously  accorded  tolerance.  Where 
he  enjoys  equal  rights,  it  is  considered  a  gracious  conces- 


50 

sion  made  to  him  by  the  ruling  Christian.  But  he  is  not 
regarded  as  the  peer  of  the  Christians,  in  moral  dignity  and 
social  worth. 

Woe  betide  the  non-Christians,  the  heathen  or  the 
Mohammedan,  if  wrong  is  done  by  him  to  Christians  in 
any  part  of  the  world!  If  a  few  hundred  rebellious  Chris- 
tian subjects  of  the  Turk  are  killed  by  their  wrathful 
rulers,  all  Christendom  burns  with  righteous  indignation 
and  demands  immediate  and  fullest  redress.  The  remon- 
strances made  by  the  Christian  powers  are  backed  up  by  a 
million  Christian  guns.  But  when  five  million  Jews  in 
Russia  are  deprived  of  all  human  rights,  treated  as  pariahs, 
plundered,  tormented  beyond  endurance,  driven  from  their 
homes  and  made  to  perish  body  and  soul,  the  Christian 
powers  raise  no  protest  against  these  horrors  enacted  by  a 
Christian  potentate  against  helpless  human  beings.  "They 
are  only  Jews,"  the  Christian  says  in  his  heart,  "they  are 
not  our  brothers." 

Lately  a  few  Christian  missionaries  were  killed  in  China 
by  an  infuriated  mob.  A  cry  of  horror  was  heard  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Christendom.  Vengeance  for  the 
Christian  blood  ruthlessly  shed  was  demanded  in  the  Old 
World  and  in  the  New.  The  warships  of  the  great  Christian 
nations  hurried  to  the  scene  of  slaughter.  Powerful  argu- 
ments— a  thousand  cannons — were  used  with  the  helpless 
emperor.  And  they  had  their  effect.  A  large  number  of 
Chinamen  have  been  beheaded  in  expiation  of  the  crime 
against  the  missionaries.  This  was  justice,  sure  enough, 
claimed  and  obtained  by  Christians  for  Christians.  But 
scores  of  Chinamen  have  at  sundry  times  been  massacred 
in  America,  hundreds  have  again  and  again  been  plundered 
and  driven  from  their  homes  by  Christian  mobs.  Still  there 
was  no  national  indignation  in  America  against  these 
monstrous  acts.  No  European  people  remonstrated  with 
our  government  against  these  brutal  outrages.  A  paltry 
sum  was  paid  by  our  government  to  the  relations  of  the 


helpless  victims.  They  were  only  heathen  Chinese.  Their 
lives  and  rights  do  not  weigh  much  in  the  scales  of  jus- 
tice. An  editorial  writer  in  one  of  our  great  newspapers 
recently  said,  "One  Anglo-Saxon  Christian  is  worth  as 
much  as  six  heathen  Chinese.  Six  lives  should  be  given 
for  one  Christian  life."  Verily,  this  is  a  beautiful  illustra- 
tion of  the  unity  of  mankind,  a  noble  realization  of 
universal  justice.  The  moral  disease  of  anti-Semitism 
which  is  raging  on  the  continent  of  Europe  and  disgracing 
modern  civilization,  is  due  to  two  co-operating  causes,  one 
pagan,  the  other  Christian,  in  origin  and  scope.  The 
fanatics  of  race  and  nationality,  the  Aryomaniacs,  say : 
"The  Jew  ought  to  be  stripped  of  all  civil  and  political 
rights,  and  if  possible,  be  driven  from  the  land,  because 
he  is  not  of  our  blood  and  race."  This  argument  has 
a  heathen  pedigree.  "The  Jew  should  in  every  way  be 
restricted  and  restrained  and  systematically  excluded  in 
public  and  private  life  from  fellowship  with  Christians. 
He  is  a  thorn  in  the  thigh  of  our  Christian  civilization 
because  he  differs  from  us  in  faith,  and  observes  an  atti- 
tude of  open  or  concealed  hostility  toward  our  Savior." 
Thus  reason  the  fanatics  who  consider  themselves  appointed 
by  God  to  watch  over  the  highest  interests  of  Christianity. 
Opposite  the  polytheistic  as  well  as  the  trinitarian 
conceptions  of  mankind  which  separate  man  from  man 
according  to  physical  kinship  or  according  to  religious 
differences,  stands  Yahvism  with  its  unshakable  belief  in 
the  indestructible  unity,  both  physical  and  spiritual,  of  all 
the  families  of  the  earth.  Opposite  the  theory  and  practice 
of  justice  both  of  paganism  and  of  Christianity,  which  base 
all  right  either  on  community  of  blood  or  community  of 
faith,  stands  the  religion  of  ethical  monotheism  with  its 
eternal  principle  of  universal,  indiscriminating  justice,  with 
its  solemn  declaration  that  all  men  are  equal,  because  all 
are  made  in  the  spiritual  image  of  God.  Yahvism  recog- 
nizes no  distinctions  of  race  nor  differences  of  religious 


52 

belief  before  the  throne  of  Divine  and  human  justice.  All 
human  beings  are  declared  to  be  alike  the  children  of  the 
household  of  God.  In  the  city  of  God,  as  seen  by  the  eye 
of  the  prophets,  there  are  no  favorites  endowed  with 
rights  superior  to  those  of  the  humblest  son  of  man. 
This  would  be  a  grievous  injustice  done  by  God  Himself. 
The  spirit  of  the  prophets,  their  deathless  love  of  right- 
eousness, will  brook  no  injustice,  no  partiality  in  God  Him- 
self. The  throne  of  Yahve  must  be  established  on  justice, 
or  the  true  Israelite  would  refuse  to  prostrate  himself 
at  His  feet.  He  would  not  adore  a  God  in  whom  there  is 
unrighteousness.  He  would  turn  away  with  indignation 
and  despair  from  the  supreme  Power,  were  the  Power 
conclusively  proved  to  bestow  His  favors  with  an  unjust 
hand,  to  deal  with  men  according  to  His  caprice,  and  not  to 
reward  and  love  every  man  according  to  the  righteousness 
of  his  ways. 

This  idea  is  the  very  soul  of  our  religion.  Justice  is 
absolute,  eternal,  and  universal,  and  is  binding  on  God  and 
on  men  and  all  rational  beings,  wherever  and  under  what 
conditions  soever  they  may  exist  in  any  part  of  the  universe. 
God  is  justice ;  this  is  His  name  forever.  If  He  were  not 
just  He  would  not  be  God.  He  would  be  a  dread  power, 
feared  by  weak  mortal  man,  but  He  would  not  deserve  our 
worship  and  love.  The  sacred  writers  never  weary  of 
praising  and  invoking  the  justice  of  God.  The  righteous- 
ness of  Yahve  is  the  dearest  theme  of  the  Psalmist's 
song  and  the  chief  burden  of  the  Prophet's  message. 
"Thou  lovest  justice,"  say  the  sweet  singers  of  Israel, 
''Thy  right  hand  is  full  of  justice."  Justice  walks  before 
Him.  Justice  and  judgment  are  the  foundations  of  His 
throne.  His  justice  is  everlasting,  all  His  ordinances  are 
just.  Yahve  is  righteous  in  all  His  ways.  He  judges 
the  whole  world  in  justice.  In  the  song  of  Moses  it  is 
said :  Just  and  upright  is  He.  In  his  confessions  of  Israel's 
sins,  Ezra  says:  O  Yahve,  God  of  Israel,  Thou  art  just. 


53 

Nehemiah  prays:  Thou  hast  kept  thy  promise,  because 
Thou  art  righteous.  Thou  art  just  in  all  that  is  brought 
upon  us;  for  Thou  hast  done  right,  but  we  have  done 
wickedly. 

But  why  multiply  instances?  The  belief  in  the  per- 
fect justice  of  God  permeates  every  part  of  the  Bible.  It 
has  moulded  the  ethics  of  Yahvism  and  determined  the 
course  of  Israel's  history.  So  convinced  were  the  leaders 
of  religious  thought  in  Israel,  that  the  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth  must  be  righteous  in  all  His  ways  and  just 
toward  all  men,  that  the  heroes  of  faith  do  not  hesitate  to 
turn  to  Yahve  and  demand  justice  at  His  hand,  whenever 
He  seems  to  be  doing  injustice  to  them  or  to  other  men. 
"Shall  the  judge  of  the  whole  world  not  do  justice?"  said 
Abraham,  the  friend  of  God,  the  father  of  the  faithful, 
while  pleading  with  the  Lord  for  the  people  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  If  there  are  only  fifty  or  forty  or  even  ten 
righteous  men  in  the  doomed  cities,  God  should  spare  all 
for  the  sake  of  the  righteous  that  are  in  their  midst.  For 
it  would  be  wrong  to  let  the  righteous  perish  with  the 
wicked.  It  would  be  unjust  not  to  give  the  good  time  to 
change  by  their  example  the  life  of  the  sinful  and  reclaim 
them  from  the  evil  of  their  way. 

Jeremiah,  the  martyr  prophet,  being  ruthlessly  perse- 
cuted by  his  cruel  enemies  and  treacherously  treated  by 
his  brethren,  challenges  God  in  the  bitterness  of  his  heart 
and  dares  enter  into  a  controversy  with  Him. 

' '  Thou  art  righteous,  O  Yahve,  when  I  contend  with  Thee. 
Why  does  the  way  of  the  wicked  prosper  ? 
Why  are  all  the  men  of  treachery  at  ease  ? 
Thou  has  planted  them,  yea,  they  have  taken  root. 
They  grow,  yea,  they  bring  forth  fruit, 
Thou  art  near  to  their  mouth,  but  far  from  their  hearts. 
But  Thou,  O  Yahve,  knowest  me  ; 
Thou  hast  seen  me  and  tried  my  heart. 
Whether  it  be  devoted  to  Thee." 

In  the  agony  of  his  sufferings  Job  calls  God  to  account 
for  afflicting  him  without  just  cause.  I  would  speak  to 


54 

the  Almighty!  he  cries,  I  desire  to  reason  with  God. 
"Behold,  He  may  slay  me,  but  I  will  defend  my  ways 
before  Him.  Behold,  I  have  arranged  my  plea,  I  know 
that  I  shall  prove  my  right." 

This  heroic  love  of  justice,  this  dauntless  conviction 
that  wrong  is  wrong  whether  done  by  man  or  by  God,  the 
sublime  belief  that  the  ways  of  God  must  be  just  and 
righteous  altogether,  form  the  keynote  to  the  theology  and 
the  ethics  of  the  religion  of  Israel.  From  the  first  day  of 
its  appearance  among  the  children  of  men  Yahvism  has 
above  all  things  been  the  religion  of  righteousness,  the 
religion  of  justice  uncompromising  and  universal,  of  jus- 
tice Divine  and  human.  The  fruitful  germ  of  Yahvism 
was  deadly  hatred  of  wrong  done  to  the  weak  by  the 
strong,  by  the  rich  to  the  poor,  by  the  native  to  the 
stranger,  a  horror  of  aristocratic  privileges  and  abuses,  a 
fierce  anger  against  oppression  practiced  in  the  name  of 
gods,  of  caste,  of  race  and  nationality.  The  tree  of  Yahv- 
ism had  from  the  very  beginning  its  roots  in  infinite 
pity  for  the  down-trodden,  in  profound  reverence  for  the 
humanity  of  all  men,  in  a  quenchless  love  of  justice  as 
broad  as  mankind.  Yahvism,  the  religion  of  humanity, 
is  a  perennial  battle  for  the  right  So  it  was  conceived  by 
Moses,  so  it  was  revealed  by  him  to  his  immediate  follow- 
ers, and  so  it  was  transmitted  by  him  and  the  other  proph- 
ets to  be  a  heritage  to  all  generations. 


THE  FIRST  AND  GREATEST 
OF  ALL  MORAL  IDEAS. 


moral  ideas  hold  a  distinct  and  supreme  place  in 
•"•  the  world  of  thought  They  overshadow  in  dignity 
and  practical  importance  all  other  ideas.  They  form  the 
most  characteristic  and  noblest  possessions  of  the  human 
race.  In  the  last  resort  they  determine  the  worth  of  all 
things  and  fix  the  rank  of  every  man  in  the  scale  of 
humanity.  The  moral  ideas  are  the  standards  of  judg- 
ment, which  by  a  spontaneous  impulse  of  our  soul  we 
apply  to  ourselves  and  all  other  persons,  to  all  desires  and 
actions,  to  all  relations  which  human  beings  bear  to  one 
another.  Whatever  agrees  with  the  moral  standards  of 
judgment  meets  with  our  approbation  and  is  praised  as 
good.  Whatever  is  found  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  the 
moral  ideas  instantly  calls  forth  our  disapprobation  and 
is  condemned  as  bad. 

No  matter  by  what  process  of  psychological  and  histor- 
ical evolution  the  human  race  has  come  by  the  moral  ideas, 
they  are  found  to  exist  in  man  as  the  supreme  facts  of  his 
consciousness.  They  can  not  be  reasoned  out  of  existence 
by  any  sophisms  of  selfishness.  They  can  not  be  expelled 
from  our  soul  by  any  effort  of  a  wicked  will.  They  form 
indestructible  parts  of  the  very  essence  of  the  human 
intelligence.  They  are  spontaneous  sentiments  which 
well  up  from  the  heart,  original  revelations  which  rise 
from  the  mystery  of  the  mind.  Wherever  two  or  three 
men  meet  together,  the  moral  ideas  are  present  and  pass 
judgment  on  their  conduct,  their  mutual  affections,  their 
words  and  acts,  bestowing  praise  or  censure  in  accord- 
ance with  the  canons  of  justice  and  benevolence.  In  the 


56 

heat  of  passion,  under  the  stress  of  egotistical  forces,  their 
commandments  may  be  disobeyed  and  their  monitions  may 
go  unheeded  for  a  time.  But  their  voice  can  never  be 
stifled.  Their  adverse  judgments  are  invariably  approved 
of  by  all  impartial  observers,  and  come  back  to  the  trans- 
gressor with  the  shock  of  damning  public  conscience, 
causing  him  pangs  of  shame  and  remorse. 

Within  the  innermost  chambers  of  every  heart  the 
moral  ideas  sit  enthroned,  and  call  before  their  tribunal  all 
feelings,  all  doubts,  all  stirring  of  the  will.  All  noble  and 
all  ignoble  desires,  though  concealed  from  the  knowledge 
of  other  men,  are  discerned  by  the  judges  within  our 
breast,  and  are  hailed  by  them  as  signs  of  inward  right- 
eousness or  branded  as  exhibitions  of  inward  iniquity. 
With  every  deed  of  ours  that  is  born  into  the  world  a 
moral  judgment  is  born  as  its  twin  brother. 

The  moral  ideas  are  the  divinities  which  reside  within 
our  soul  and  strive  to  have  dominion  over  our  whole  being, 
to  purify  and  direct  the  current  of  our  feelings,  to  inform 
our  thoughts,  to  determine  our  will,  to  shape  our  acts,  and 
to  mould  our  character  after  their  own  image  and  likeness. 
All  the  moral  ideas  are  one  in  their  ultimate  nature, 
origin,  and  aim.  All  are,  as  it  were,  one  deity  which,  like 
the  symbolic  representations  of  the  Divine  in  many  relig- 
ions, bears  several  faces  expressive  of  various  attributes. 
All  demand  harmony  in  the  varying  human  relations.  All 
may  be  regarded  from  the  religious  point  of  view  as 
manifestations  of  the  Infinite  and  the  holy  ground  of  all 
existence.  They  are  revelations  in  man  of  the  all-good 
and  all-wise  divine  Power  and  Love.  What  are  moral 
ideas  in  the  soul  of  man  are  eternal  and  absolute  qualities  of 
Him  in  whom  we  live,  move,  and  have  our  being.  Slowly 
and  painfully  does  moral  man  strive  to  incarnate  the  moral 
ideas  in  his  character  and  to  realize  them  in  the  activities 
of  his  life.  To  him  they  remain  forever  glorious  ideals 
which  he  follows  from  afar  but  is  never  able  to  reach. 


57 

But  the  ideals  of  goodness,  which  imperfect  man  in  vain 
yearns  to  realize,  are  eternally  actual  in  God.  To  the  heart 
of  faith  God  is  the  realized  Ideal  of  moral  perfection. 

Our  conception  of  divine  goodness  yields  to  us  the 
moral  ideas.  The  attributes  of  God  descend,  as  it  were, 
from  heaven  to  earth  and  become  the  moral  ideals  of 
humanity.  This  is  the  deep  meaning  of  the  words  of 
the  prophets,  that  the  righteous  walk  with  God.  They 
endeavor  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  the  divine  prototype, 
and  with  quenchless  longing  strive  to  imitate  the  qualities 
of  the  perfect  ideal.  In  this  indestructible  desire  of  man 
to  live  a  godlike  life  consists  the  glory  and  divinity  of  the 
human  soul.  The  great  founder  of  Yahvism  had  this  truth 
in  view,  when  he  taught  that  man  was  made  in  the  image 
of  God.  The  belief  in  a  universal,  all-perfect  Intelligence 
has  for  its  corollary  the  belief  that  man,  the  highest  finite 
intelligence,  has  the  power  and  duty  to  share  in  the  quali- 
ties of  the  perfect  Spirit,  to  be  like  Him,  just,  merciful, 
long-suffering,  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth.  This  is 
the  one  supreme  dogma  in  which  religion  and  morality 
are  indissolubly  bound  up  together. 

Now,  if  we  analyze  our  idea  of  God,  we  find  its  first 
and  chiefest  content  to  be  that  wisdom  and  will  are  abso- 
lutely identical  in  Him.  The  All-good  never  wills  any- 
thing evil;  the  All-just  never  desires  injustice;  the  All- 
wise  never  contemplates  anything  unwise.  He,  who  is 
the  ultimate  source  of  thought  and  being,  perennially 
reveals  Himself  in  nature  and  history  in  accordance  with 
absolute  goodness.  In  God  wisdom  and  righteousness  are 
identical  with  His  omnipotent  will.  This  immutable  unity 
of  will  and  goodness  in  the  Divine  Being  constitutes  the 
idea  of  the  absolute  unity,  perfection,  and  freedom  of  the 
supreme  Personality.  In  this  deepest  ethical  sense,  and  in 
this  sense  only,  do  we  ascribe  personality  to  God. 

From  this  idea  of  divine  personality  springs  the  cor- 
responding idea  of  human  ethical  personality,  or  the  duty 


58 

of  man  to  unfold  himself  into  a  moral  character.  The 
ethics  of  moral  monotheism  demands  of  every  man  that 
he  strive  to  be  godlike  in  this,  that  his  will  shall  in  all 
its  manifestations  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  wisdom. 
There  shall  be  no  conflict  between  the  impulses  of  our  will 
and  our  knowledge  of  what  is  right  and  good.  There  shall 
be  no  painful  discord  between  the  desires  of  our  heart  and 
the  claims  of  benevolence.  The  will  shall  not  separate 
itself  in  selfish  isolation  from  the  social  whole.  It  shall  not 
refuse  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  conscience,  when  it  calls 
upon  us  to  combine  our  powers  with  those  of  our  fellow- 
men  and  co-operate  with  them  for  the  general  good.  It 
shall  not  rise  in  obdurate  and  greedy  egotism  against  the 
rights  of  any  human  being,  but  yield  willing  obedience 
to  the  dictates  of  justice.  There  shall  be  no  war  in  our 
breast  between  the  gentle  promptings  of  love  and  the 
demands  of  a  self-seeking  will. 

The  beginning  and  mainspring  of  all  morality,  then, 
is  that  the  moral  ideas  shall  have  perfect  control  over  our 
heart  and  mind.  They  must  have  the  power  to  stir  the 
slumbering  will  into  activity,  and  cause  it  to  move  along 
the  lines  which  they  prescribe  towards  the  end  which  they 
propose.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  moral  ideas  merely 
announce  their  presence.  They  must  prove  an  irresistible 
motive-power  of  the  will,  whenever  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity to  do  some  noble  deed,  to  make  a  painful  sacrifice  of 
pleasure  and  interest,  or  to  repress  some  unworthy  desire. 
Moral  insight  which  is  powerless  to  energize  and  guide 
the  will  is  moral  impotence.  Such  moral  decrepitude 
loses  us  our  self-respect  and  brings  down  upon  us  the  con- 
tempt of  all  impartial  observers.  The  more  thorough 
a  knowledge  a  man  has  of  the  way  of  righteousness,  the 
more  incumbent  it  is  upon  him  to  transform  such  knowl- 
edge into  moral  energy.  The  light  of  wisdom  must  peren- 
nially illumine  the  will  and  kindle  it  into  an  habitual 
good  will,  which,  according  to  Kant,  is  the  only  real  and 


59 

absolute  good  attainable  to  man,  and  in  relation  to  which 
all  other  goods  are  but  means  or  indirect  results. 

How  profound  and  clear  soever  a  man's  knowledge  of 
the  moral  ideas  and  ideals  may  be,  it  lends  as  yet  no  moral 
worth  to  his  character!  As  long  as  the  good  impulses 
to  which  the  moral  ideas  give  birth  can  be  crossed  by 
opposing  evil  desires  and  thwarted  by  selfish  motives,  our 
title  to  the  dignity  of  a  moral  personality  is  still  sadly 
defective.  Only  the  wisdom  which  is  ever  active  and 
vigilant,  which  easily  overmasters  evil  desires  and  readily 
checks  every  inward  movement  of  unrighteous  selfishness, 
constitutes  a  moral  character.  When  the  moral  ideas  and 
the  will  thus  interpenetrate  one  another  and  make  one 
music  of  life,  does  the  human  personality  become  clothed 
with  a  godlike  moral  dignity.  Such  a  person,  in  whom 
wisdom  or  the  moral  ideas  inform  and  govern  all  feelings, 
aspirations,  and  actions,  is  in  very  deed  a  moral  character 
or  personality.  He  is  infinitely  elevated  above  all  those 
human  beings,  who  are  merely  swayed  by  blind  instincts 
and  determined  in  their  actions  by  egotistical  impulses. 
He  has  emancipated  himself  from  the  bondage  of  Nature. 
He  has  broken  the  chain  of  necessity  and  lives  as  a  self- 
centered  and  self-determining  intelligence  in  the  divine 
and  pure  air  of  spiritual  freedom. 

For  the  ethical  personality  is  not  a  product  of  nature ; 
the  moral  character  is  not  the  outcome  of  mechanical  forces, 
nor  the  result  of  irresistible  psychological  impulses.  The 
moral  character  is  the  highest  creation  of  our  free-will,  is 
the  noblest  work  of  human  reason.  The  man  in  whom 
the  spirit  of  ethical  ambition  is  stirring,  constantly  has 
the  moral  ideas  before  his  mind's  eye.  Steadily  looking 
upon  them,  he  endeavors  to  fashion  himself  after  their 
likeness.  Such  a  man  is  the  greatest  of  artists.  He 
treats  himself  as  a  marble  dug  from  mankind's  quarry,  and 
aspires  to  transfer  the  features  of  the  ideal  man  upon 
his  own  character.  With  a  master's  hand  he  strives  to 


6o 

reproduce  in  himself  the  godlike  forms  of  perfect  human- 
ity, as  seen  by  the  eye  of  faith  and  hope.  Such  a  person 
is  crowned  with  the  attribute  of  goodness.  He  is  a  moral 
and  harmonious  personality.  He  ceaselessly  strives  to 
bring  every  part  of  his  conduct  into  harmony  with  the 
moral  ideas.  He  is  in  the  habit  of  examining  himself, 
whether  all  his  willing  and  doing  is  animated  by  nothing 
but  the  love  of  righteousness  and  solely  determined  by 
devotion  to  duty.  He  is  ever  asking  himself,  whether  his 
aspirations  and  acts  have  approached  the  moral  ideals  as 
near  as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  come.  Of  such  a  man 
we  say,  in  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  that  he  speaks  the 
truth  in  his  heart.  He  is  truthful  with  himself.  He 
searches  the  inward  chambers  of  his  soul,  whether  there 
be  any  self-deception,  any  hypocritical  self-righteousness 
found  therein.  His  character  possesses  the  noble  quality 
of  inward  truthfulness,  which  makes  him  proof  against  the 
debasing  illusions  of  spiritual  pride. 

The  righteous  man  is  conscientious  in  all  his  ways.  In 
all  the  relations  of  life  he  endeavors  to  satisfy  the  utmost 
claims  of  the  moral  ideas.  He  never  haggles  with  duty 
about  any  of  her  demands.  He  is  ever  afraid  of  falling 
in  his  practice  behind  the  ideas  of  justice  and  benevo- 
lence. For  this  reason  he  always  tries  to  do  more  than 
the  letter  of  the  law  and  the  current  conceptions  of  social 
obligations  require.  For  he  judges  himself  by  the  stand- 
ard of  an  ideal  morality,  which  he  bears  in  his  soul, 
although  he  knows  that  no  human  being  can  hope  fully  to 
realize  it.  Though  the  reality  always  lags  behind  the 
ideal,  yet  such  conscientious  pursuit  of  virtue,  such  ardent 
love  of  the  supreme  moral  good,  which  transforms  and 
possesses  the  whole  man,  imparts  to  him  a  new  and  sub- 
lime character.  He  is  no  longer  a  mere  child  of  Nature, 
no  more  a  part  of  the  physical  order  of  things,  but  has 
become  a  citizen  of  a  spiritual  world  or,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  religion,  he  has  grown  to  be  a  child  of  the  Eternal. 


6i 

He  has  been  born  again,  but  his  new  birth  is  due  to  no 
external  miraculous  act  of  grace,  but  to  the  regenerative 
powers  of  unfolding  godlike  reason.  Through  Godward 
aspiration,  through  moral  self-development,  the  natural 
man  is  recreated  by  himself  into  the  spiritual  man.  In 
him  the  moral  ideas  dwell  incarnate  as  living  powers,  in 
his  noble  soul  the  ideals  of  humanity  have  a  local  habita- 
tion and  are  quick  with  personal  life.  Through  his  will 
they  become  fruitful  realities  and  reveal  their  hidden 
wealth. 

Such  a  man  we  call  a  moral  personality.  What  is 
merely  potential  in  others,  has  become  in  him  actual  and 
vital.  The  moral  possibilities,  which  lay  slumbering  in 
the  germ,  have  unfolded  into  a  full-blown  character. 
Only  men  of  this  kind  may  be  said  to  have  a  genuine 
character.  They  are  typical  men.  Their  character  types 
that  of  humanity.  While  they  are  full  of  the  most  intense 
individual  life,  they  also  represent  the  general  moral  and 
spiritual  life  of  humanity.  The  immoral  man,  too,  pos- 
sesses a  character;  it  is  the  character  of  the  human 
animal.  The  selfish  man  also  represents  in  his  individ- 
uality something  general,  namely,  the  original  beast  of 
prey  still  extant  in  the  human  race.  But  the  noble  repre- 
sentatives of  spiritual  humanity  have  moved  upward,  away 
from  "the  reeling  fawn  and  the  sensual  feast."  They 
"work  out  the  beast  and  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die."  They 
are  the  heralds  of  the  coming  race  and  type  within  them- 
selves, from  more  to  more,  the  work  of  humanity  in  the 
past  and  in  future  times. 


THE  IDEALS  OF  HUMANITY. 


MAN  lives  by  his  ideas  and  advances  by  his  ideals. 
Since  man  began  his  career  on  earth,  ideals  of  one 
kind  or  another  have  been  moving  before  him  as  pillars  of 
light  showing  him  the  way  which  he  was  to  go,  leading 
him  on  and  on  through  the  trackless  material  and  intel- 
lectual world.  The  human  race,  from  time  immemorial 
and  under  all  conditions,  has  been  in  search  of  a  dreamland 
of  perfection.  The  various  tribes  and  generations  have 
ever  been  traveling  on  diverse  roads  toward  what  they 
believed  to  be  the  Promised  Land  of  their  dearest  wishes. 
The  human  mind  is  never  content  with  what  is,  but 
always  strives  after  something  that  shall  be.  The  present 
never  gives  complete  satisfaction  to  the  soul  of  mankind, 
it  never  appears  as  a  good  and  desirable  state.  The  better 
ever  looms  in  the  distance  as  a  condition  devoutly  to  be 
wished.  When  the  better  is  reached,  man  finds  discontent 
and  disappointment  waiting  there  for  him.  Without 
taking  rest  he  sets  out  in  pursuit  of  what  he  conceives  to 
be  the  best.  When  that  is  attained,  he  discovers  that  he 
has  only  come  to  a  way  station,  because  a  new  and  grander 
ideal  is  seen  shining  and  beckoning  far  away.  Behind 
every  ideal,  however  lofty,  another  higher,  diviner  ideal  of 
perfection  rises  on  the  horizon  of  humanity's  vision.  This 
process  of  conceiving  and  following  ideal  after  ideal,  each 
successive  one  being  nobler,  more  universal,  and  more 
difficult  of  realization,  than  the  preceding  ones,  has  been 
going  on  since  the  dim  foretime  of  the  race  and  will  go  on 
as  long  as  mankind  will  have  an  abiding-place  on  this 
globe.  This  process  makes  up  the  true  life  and  meaning 
of  history,  and  is  both  the  moving  cause  and  the  result  of 


63 

humanity's  religious,  moral,  intellectual,  artistic,  political, 
and  economic  development. 

Both  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind  and  the 
constitution  of  things  cause  man  to  form  varying  and 
ascending  ideas  of  excellence  and  perfect  existence,  and 
constantly  urge  him  on  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  his  ideals 
with  a  quenchless  longing  to  see  them  realized.  Of  all 
animate  beings  which  the  creative  Energy  Divine  has  in 
course  of  endless  evolutions  brought  into  existence,  man 
alone  is  habitually  dissatisfied  with  himself,  his  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  powers,  and  with  the  conditions  of 
nature  in  the  midst  of  which  he  is  placed.  He  alone 
recognizes  that  the  world  which  surrounds  him  is  imper- 
fect in  innumerable  ways.  Of  all  the  multitudinous 
offspring  of  Nature  he  alone  is  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  she  is  full  of  evils  and  horrors.  Sickness,  death, 
want,  and  the  thousand  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to,  ever 
vexed  and  saddened  the  heart  of  man,  and  excited  in  him 
a  keen  desire  to  overcome  them  as  far  as  possible.  The 
lowest  savages  long  after  a  state  of  well-being  to  which 
the  realities  of  their  existence  form  a  painful  contrast. 
"Things  are  not  as  they  ought  to  be,"  has  been  the  cry  of 
mankind  in  the  rudest  stone  age  as  it  still  is  in  these  days 
of  steam  power,  electricity,  and  telephones.  In  this  ever- 
lasting complaint  is  expressed  the  perennial  dissatisfaction 
of  humanity  not  only  with  existing  social  conditions  but 
also  with  the  natural  environment.  As  to  how  things 
ought  to  be,  there  is  an  infinite  variety  of  views  diverging 
from  one  another  according  to  the  degree  and  kind  of 
civilization  attained  by  a  people.  For  human  ideals  pro- 
gressively change  in  correspondence  with  the  progressive 
changes  which  human  nature  undergoes.  The  ideals  are 
evolved  in  accordance  with  the  development  of  the  inner 
and  outward  life  of  man.  Their  rise  is  in  keeping  with 
the  evolution  of  the  social  organism  in  its  various  relations, 
with  the  unfolding  of  the  moral  powers,  with  the  growth 


64 

of  knowledge,  art,  literature,  the  appliances  of  industry, 
and  the  production  of  wealth.  The  ideal  state  of  existence 
which  is  cherished  by  the  heart,  and  given  shape  to  by  the 
imagination,  of  primitive  savages,  would  be  regarded  as  a 
state  of  moral  degradation  and  physical  wretchedness  by 
all  cultured  people  in  our  time. 

According  to  the  ancient  Germans,  all  valiant  warriors 
slain  in  battle  lead  in  Walhalla  a  life  of  perfect  or  ideal 
happiness.  Every  morning  they  go  forth,  armed  with 
shield,  spear,  sword,  and  arrows,  to  hunt  Odin's  boar.  After 
indulging  in  the  pleasures  of  the  chase  to  their  heart's  con- 
tent, they  sit  down  to  feast  on  the  flesh  of  the  boar  and  to 
drink  immense  quantities  of  mead  from  huge  bumpers. 
Slain  every  day,  the  boar  rises  daily  to  new  life,  again  to 
furnish  a  banquet  to  the  heroes  in  Walhalla.  Nor  did  the 
supply  of  mead  ever  give  out.  Another  source  of  delight 
to  the  blessed  who  dwell  in  the  German  heaven  consists  in 
daily  combats  among  themselves.  Terrible  wounds  are 
inflicted,  limbs,  heads  are  cut  off.  But  immediately  after 
the  battle  all  wounds  are  healed,  fresh  limbs  grow,  the 
heads  return  to  their  places,  the  slain  dead  live  again,  to 
renew  the  same  pastime  the  following  day.  Thus,  hunt- 
ing daily  with  unfailing  success,  feasting  on  rich  meats, 
drinking  without  stint  and  measure,  fighting,  wounding, 
and  killing  without  losing  permanently  life  and  limb,  was 
the  ideal  life,  the  dreamed-of  Paradise  of  the  barbarous 
Germans.  Compare  it  with  the  ideals  of  a  Lessing,  a  Kant, 
a  Schiller,  or  a  Goethe.  The  glaring  contrast  between 
their  respective  ideals  is  not  greater  than  the  difference 
between  the  ignorant,  superstitious,  ferocious,  and  vora- 
cious Germans  of  old  and  these  their  late-born  descendants, 
who  represent  the  highest  intelligence  and  culture  as  yet 
attained  by  the  human  race.  As  is  a  people,  so  will  its 
ideals  be,  seeing  that  the  latter  are  after  all  but  the  trans- 
figured images  of  the  existing  realities  of  life  without  their 
blemishes  and  evils.  The  ideal  of  the  brutal,  brave,  and 


65 

cunning  Roman  conquerors,  which  aimed  at  the  subjuga- 
tion and  exploitation  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
appeared  to  godly  Israelites,  such  as  the  righteous  and  meek 
Hillel  and  Jesus,  as  a  thing  of  abomination,  as  the  perni- 
cious desire  of  a  wicked  people.  The  ideal  of  the  Talmu- 
dic  sages  was  the  perpetual  study  of  the  Torah  in  this  life 
and  in  the  world  to  come.  In  Heaven  the  righteous  sit 
with  crowns  on  their  heads  ranged  around  the  throne  of 
God  and  carry  on  the  most  subtile  discussions  on  knotty 
points  of  law.  By  the  fierce  warriors  of  King  Saul  or 
David  the  ideal  life  of  these  pedantic  scholars  and  quib- 
bling casuists  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  most  absurd 
and  unspeakably  tedious  sort  of  existence. 

All  ideals,  high  or  low,  primitive  or  modern,  which 
spring  from  dissatisfaction  with  the  natural  environment, 
have  one  essential  feature  in  common.  They  all  aspire 
after  man's  dominion  over  the  surrounding  world.  Or,  to 
use  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  the  divine  power  that 
indwells  man  has  from  the  earliest  days  of  his  existence 
inspired  him  with  an  irresistible  desire  to  replenish  the 
earth  and  subdue  it,  to  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the 
sea  and  over  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  over  every  living 
thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth.  With  profound  insight 
into  the  nature  and  destiny  of  man  the  Bible  tells  us  that 
the  distinctive  mark  of  his  humanity  consists  in  his  aspi- 
rations after  rulership  over  the  earth  and  all  it  contains. 
In  the  language  of  mythic  poetry  it  is  related  that  man 
abode  in  Paradise  as  long  as  he  lived  in  a  state  of  child- 
like contentment.  But  Paradise  quickly  vanished,  as  soon 
as  man  had  eaten  of  the  fruit  of  knowledge  and  learned  to 
know  the  difference  between  good  and  evil.  From  that 
time  on  discontent  has  been  his  inseparable  companion. 
From  that  time  on,  he  has  put  forth  ceaseless  efforts  to 
make  Paradise  for  himself  through  labor,  through  knowl- 
edge, through  conquest  of  the  external  world  and  conquest 
of  himself,  of  his  lower  nature,  of  his  bestial  instincts,  his 
fierce  passions,  his  greedy  and  cruel  selfishness. 


66 

No  deeper  truth  of  human  history  has  ever  been  uttered 
than  the  statement  of  the  Hebrew  poet  that  man  began  to 
be  ashamed  of  himself,  of  the  moral  state  he  found  himself 
in,  as  soon  as  he  awoke  from  the  slumber  of  unmoral  child- 
hood and  learned  to  distinguish  between  good  and  evil. 

The  perennial  dissatisfaction  of  man  with  his  moral 
state,  his  ceaseless  endeavor  to  rise  to  an  ever  higher  moral 
station,  is  the  most  inspiring  fact  in  the  life  of  mankind 
and  the  chiefest  motive  power  of  humanity's  upward  move- 
ments. The  moral  ideals  are  the  results  of  this  irresistible 
tendency  of  the  human  race  to  self-criticism. 

This  inextinguishable  spirit  of  discontent  with  the 
conditions  of  the  surrounding  world  and  with  himself, 
with  his  physical  and  mental  and  moral  powers,  is  the 
royal  prerogative  of  man,  and  is,  closely  considered,  but  a 
trait  of  character  he  has  inherited  from  the  creative  life  of 
the  universal  Energy.  Humanity  simply  continues  on  a 
grand  scale  and  with  conscious  will-power  the  impulse 
of  dissatisfaction  which  Nature  herself  displays  in  her 
processes  of  evolution.  The  intellectual  and  moral  self- 
criticism  of  mankind  is  nothing  but  the  self-criticism  of 
Nature  herself  taken  up  by  man,  the  highest  representative 
of  her  unfolding  life,  and  carried  onward  by  him  on  a 
grand  scale  and  with  persistent  will-power.  Evolution, 
the  gradual  ascent  of  Nature  from  the  imperfect  to  the 
more  perfect,  from  the  inorganic  to  the  organic,  the  slow 
but  steady  rise  from  the  lowest  and  simplest  organisms  to 
higher  and  ever  higher  forms  of  physical  and  mental  life, 
may  be  viewed  as  the  expression  of  Nature's  perpetual 
dissatisfaction  with  her  own  past  achievements  and  her 
effort  to  reach  a  higher  plane  of  creative  self-manifestation. 
The  history  of  creation  is  the  history  of  Nature's  self- 
criticism  and  progressing  aspirations.  The  fully-developed 
solar  system  may  be  regarded  as  Nature's  own  criticism  on 
the  nebulous  and  undifferentiated  state  of  universal  matter. 
The  solid  earth  whereon  we  tread,  fit  to  be  the  habitation 


67 

of  organic  life,  is  the  self-criticism  of  the  creative  Power 
on  the  earth  still  weltering  in  tracts  of  fluent  heat.  The 
birth  of  organic  life  on  earth  was  the  self-criticism  of 
Nature  on  the  antecedent  inorganic  state  of  existence  and 
the  beginning  realization  of  a  higher  creative  purpose. 
Animate  life  is  a  criticism  and  an  immense  advance  upon 
inanimate  organisms.  The  vertebrates  are  a  criticism 
upon  the  invertebrates.  In  man  Nature  brought  into 
being  her  grandest  criticism  upon  all  other  forms  of  finite 
existence.  In  man  Nature  produced  the  highest  ideal  of 
her  creative  aspirations.  In  him  are  gathered  together 
and  organized  all  the  vital  tendencies  of  her  own  past. 
All  her  mysterious  yearnings  after  the  better  and  best  are 
incarnated  in  him.  To  her  latest-born  and  most  perfect 
offspring,  to  royal  man,  she  has  transmitted,  as  an  inheri- 
tance from  her  own  life,  her  divine  discontent  with 
whatever  has  been  achieved,  her  own  ceaseless  striving  to 
rise  from  stepping-stone  to  stepping-stone  of  excellence  to 
ever  higher  ends.  Nature  has  given  the  scepter  of  prog- 
ress, which  she  herself  had  wielded  through  countless 
eons  of  time,  into  the  hand  of  man.  As  man  is  the 
epitome  of  the  whole  past  life  of  the  universe,  so  is  he  the 
conscious  standard-bearer  of  Nature's  growing  purposes, 
the  exponent  and  realizer  of  her  ideals.  In  other  words, 
the  Infinite  Ground  of  all  existence,  that  has  manifested 
Himself  in  the  upward  evolutions  of  life,  continues  to 
reveal  the  hidden  wealth  of  His  power,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness in  humanity's  progressive  intellectual,  moral,  and 
social  ideas. 

Nor  has  man  at  any  period  of  his  history  failed  to 
believe  that  his  ideals  correspond  to  what  he  happened  to 
regard  and  venerate  as  the  Divine  in  Nature  and  in  the  life 
of  humanity.  The  divinities  of  every  people  are  simply 
the  counterparts  of  the  ideals  of  power  and  moral  excel- 
lence entertained  by  that  people.  Every  God,  from  the 
brutal,  cruel,  and  local  god  of  the  savage  to  Yahve,  the 


68 

Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  who  is  gracious  and  merci- 
ful, long-suffering  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth, 
receives  adoration,  because  he  is  believed  to  possess  in  all 
perfection  those  attributes  of  greatness  which  his  wor- 
shipers chance  to  cherish  and  admire  most  intensely.  As 
are  the  ideals  of  a  people,  so  are  the  gods  thereof.  The 
reason  is  obvious.  The  gods  are  everywhere  conceived  in 
the  image  of  the  prevailing  human  ideals.  They  are 
reverenced  as  the  realized  ideals.  Men  strive  to  imitate 
their  qualities  and  to  walk  in  their  ways.  Thus,  there  is 
a  parallelism  between  the  gods  of  a  people  and  its  ideals. 
As  are  a  people's  gods,  such  are  the  ideals  thereof. 

There  is  another  parallelism  which  should  be  taken 
into  account,  as  it  plays  a  most  important  part  in  the 
social,  political,  and  moral  life  of  every  people.  While  the 
gods  are  worshiped  as  the  realized  ideals,  aristocracies 
of  various  kinds  wield  influence  and  authority,  because 
they  are  believed  to  approach  nearer  the  type  of  the  pre- 
vailing ideal  than  the  mass  of  the  people.  Some  sort  of 
aristocracy  has  always  existed  among  the  children  of  man 
and  will  exist,  as  long  as  men  will  cherish  ideals  of  excel- 
lence, power,  and  happiness.  Under  all  conditions,  in 
every  society  however  constituted,  there  are  born  into 
the  world  some  persons  who  are  superior  to  their  fellows 
in  those  qualities,  and  are  distinguished  above  others  by 
that  conduct,  which  the  social  body  prizes  most  highly. 
Such  persons  are  the  natural-born  betters  or  aristocrats 
among  their  fellow-men,  whether  formally  recognized  or 
merely  tacitly  acknowledged  as  such.  The  natural  inequal- 
ity of  men  will  bring  to  the  surface  certain  persons,  to 
•whom  pre-eminence  comes  because  they  possess  in  an  extra- 
ordinary degree  those  powers  and  virtues  which  the 
necessities  of  the  social  environment  most  require  and  the 
ideals  of  the  age  commend  as  most  admirable.  These 
betters,  or  aristocrats,  in  all  pagan  societies  derived  their 
descent  chiefly  from  the  gods  of  the  people,  thus  asserting 


69 

and  explaining  their  claims  to  superiority  by  dint  of  their 
relationship  to  the  divine  beings  who  were  adored  and 
obeyed  as  the  perfect  types  of  power,  happiness,  and  excel- 
lence. 

Like  all  things  natural  and  human,  physical  and 
spiritual,  the  idea  of  what  constitutes  the  essential  nature 
of  superiority  and  greatness  has  in  the  life  of  mankind 
undergone  a  profound  and  varied  process  of  evolution.  On 
the  whole,  the  development  has  been  in  an  upward  direc- 
tion, toward  ever  higher  ideals  of  humanity.  Thus,  the 
very  qualities  and  acts  which  constituted  a  superior  man 
and  worshipful  hero  among  the  savage  ancestors  of  the 
English,  would  in  the  England  of  Cobden  and  Gladstone 
mark  a  man  as  an  atrocious  criminal.  Instead  of  enjoying 
material  advantages  and  social  honor,  the  career  of  such  a 
person  would  in  all  probability  be  cut  short  by  the  aveng- 
ing hand  of  the  commonwealth.  Among  some  peoples, 
however,  there  has  in  this  respect  been  at  sundry  times  a 
development  downward,  a  degeneration  of  the  conception 
of  human  nobility.  It  corresponds  to,  and  is  caused  by,  a 
general  degeneration  of  the  moral  ideas  and  the  ideal 
standards  of  life.  The  descendants  of  the  Spanish  Moors 
in  Morocco  have,  as  in  all  other  respects  so  with  regard  to 
what  constitutes  true  superiority,  sadly  fallen  from  the 
high  standard  of  their  refined,  chivalrous,  and  broad- 
minded  ancestors.  The  ferocious  and  forceful  despot,  the 
strong  and  brutal  robber,  the  ignorant  and  fierce  fanatic, 
hold  the  first  place  and  wield  the  greatest  influence  among 
these  degenerate  descendants  of  a  once  noble  and  highly- 
developed  race.  Similarly,  all  retrograding  nations  go 
back  in  their  ideals  to  the  ideas  of  superiority  which  were 
entertained  by  primitive  men.  Force,  physical  power 
occupies  among  them  the  first  rank,  just  as  it  did  among 
the  savage  ancestors  of  all  living  races. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  AMERICA 

TO    THE  WORLD'S 

CIVILIZATION. 


i. 

THE  NATURE  OF  CIVILIZATION. 

What  contributions  has  the  American  people  made  to 
the  world's  civilization?  This  is  no  idle  question.  It  is  of 
the  deepest  concern  to  us  all  to  know  what  standing  in 
the  scale  of  humanity  the  nation  has  of  which  we  form 
living  parts.  For  the  greatness,  the  worth  and  dignity,  of 
a  people  does  not  consist  in  its  numbers,  nor  in  the  vast- 
ness  of  its  territory,  but  in  what  it  has  done  and  is  doing 
for  the  growth  of  the  world's  civilization.  The  Hebrews 
were  ever  a  small,  politically  feeble  people,  inhabiting  a 
narrow  strip  of  land,  which  was  largely  barren  and  at  best 
yielded  but  moderate  means  of  subsistence  to  its  diligent 
and  abstemious  cultivators.  Yet,  who  would  call  in 
doubt,  that  this  poor,  insignificant  tribe,  whose  life  has 
come  to  be  the  better  half  of  the  spiritual  and  moral  life 
of  mankind,  has  been  an  infinitely  greater  people  than 
any  of  the  mighty  conquering  races  of  Asia?  The  Greek 
people,  the  prolific  parent  of  highest  art,  which  has  been 
and  forever  will  be  the  inspiration  and  model  of  all 
nations,  the  sunny  Hellenic  race,  that  has  bequeathed  to  us 
its  glorious  poetry,  far  more  precious  than  all  the  gold  and 
silver  in  the  world,  the  nation  of  thinkers,  who  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  mankind  created  a  science  of 
mind  and  nature,  this  nation  had  mountainous  and  stony 


Hellas  for  its  habitation,  a  country  not  larger  than  many  a 
county  in  Texas.  Yet  fifty  years  of  Greece,  the  Age  of 
Pericles,  Plato,  and  Aristotle,  are  better  "than  a  cycle  of 
Cathay."  The  single  city  of  Rome  succeeded  in  accom- 
plishing what  the  immense  monarchies  of  the  Bast  failed 
in,  namely  in  unifying  and  organizing  all  the  nations  dwell- 
ing on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  into  an 
homogeneous,  mighty  empire,  binding  them  together  by 
the  ties  of  common  laws,  institutions,  and  interests,  secur- 
ing to  them  peace  and  prosperity,  and  stamping  upon  them 
all  the  character  of  a  cosmopolitan  culture.  Because  the 
Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  were  the  authors  of 
three-fourths  of  our  civilization,  we  regard  and  venerate 
them  as  the  greatest  nations  of  antiquity,  although  the 
barbarians  of  northern  Europe  and  Asia  outnumbered  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  Athens,  and  Rome  as  a  hundred 
to  one.  The  Russians  are  the  most  numerous  people  of 
Europe.  Still  England  alone,  without  Scotland,  Wales, 
and  Ireland,  is  beyond  comparison  a  greater  nation  than 
Russia,  because  she  is  unspeakably  richer  in  all  the  true 
elements  of  human  existence,  because  she  has  during  the 
single  reign  of  Queen  Victoria  contributed  a  thousand 
times  more  toward  the  world's  civilization  than  the  Russian 
people  since  the  beginning  of  its  existence.  What  contri- 
butions then  has  the  people  of  the  United  States  made  to 
the  world's  civilization,  to  justify  us  in  regarding  it  as  one 
of  the  great  and  leading  nations? 

But  before  we  can  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to  this 
all-important  question  we  must  briefly  state  what  civiliza- 
tion is,  in  what  its  innermost  life  consists.  The  value  of 
life,  individual,  national,  and  universal,  does  not  lie  in 
mere  living.  Manifestly  it  is  the  aim  and  purpose  of  life 
to  bring  to  birth  the  divinity  we  call  reason,  to  develop 
the  lordly  powers  of  humanity.  All  nature  has  travailed 
through  countless  eons  to  bring  forth  man  the  thinker, 
man  the  artist,  above  all,  man  the  free  agent.  The  mind 


72 

of  man  is  to  be  a  lamp  of  God,  searching  the  innermost 
chambers  of  existence.  The  mind  of  man  is  to  be  the  all- 
seeing  eye  of  the  universe,  looking  into  the  secret  heart  of 
things.  The  mind  of  man  is  to  be  the  inspired  interpreter 
of  creation,  to  spell  out  her  most  hidden  mysteries,  and 
weave  all  that  is  in  her  into  the  web  of  a  reasoned  uni- 
versal harmony,  and  thus  to  reveal  the  might,  the  glory,  and 
the  wisdom  of  the  infinite.  It  is  the  manifest  destiny  of 
man's  creative  imagination  to  suffuse  the  heavens  above 
and  the  earth  beneath  with  its  own  informing  rays,  to 
make  the  stern  countenance  of  the  word  necessity  radiant 
with  the  smile  of  beauty.  The  soul  of  a  Mozart  or 
Beethoven  gives  to  the  spheres  the  witchery  of  music  and 
makes  the  air  vocal  with  trancing  melodies.  The  genius 
of  a  Phidias  breathes  into  the  marble  the  breath  of  perfect 
divine  life,  causing  the  eternal  ideas  to  dwell  in  habitations 
of  clay.  Nature  has  through  countless  ages  been  anxiously 
waiting  and  ceaselessly  laboring  for  the  coming  of  the 
artist,  for  the  coming  of  a  Raphael,  who  with  the  magic  of 
his  eye  and  hand  charms  upon  the  canvas  the  visions  of 
his  genius,  the  imperishable  types  of  Godhood  and  man- 
hood, and  unfolds  within  the  narrowest  compass  what  the 
heavens  and  the  heaven  of  heavens  can  not  contain — the 
soul  of  the  world  and  the  soul  of  man. 

But  knowledge  and  art,  though  of  immeasurable  value, 
are  not  the  only  elements  of  civilization  nor  the  most 
important,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  not  the  highest 
manifestations  of  the  mind.  There  is  a  power  in  man 
diviner  than  all,  the  power  of  free-will.  O  holy  power, 
Freedom  of  will,  thou  art  the  mystery  of  mysteries  pass- 
ing human  understanding,  yet  a  blessed  reality  dwelling  in 
our  very  heart  and  soul !  Whence  didst  thou  spring,  glory 
and  majesty  of  the  universe?  No  burning  sun  brought  thee 
to  light!  Space  says:  "In  none  of  my  chambers  was 
Freedom's  birthplace."  Necessity,  the  parent  of  all  things, 
the  inexorable  ruler  of  all,  whose  iron  grasp  neither  star 


73 

nor  atom,  neither  the  earth  nor  any  of  her  offspring  can 
loosen,  she  was  not  thy  mother,  O  Free-will  of  man !  Thou 
art  a  goddess,  that  hoverest  with  outstretched  wings  over 
the  abysmal  waters  of  existence.  Thou  sayest :  "Let 
there  be  light,"  and  there  is  light  in  the  midst  of  primeval 
darkness;  Thou  sayest:  "Let  there  be  a  sovereign  law  of 
justice,"  and  justice  leaps  forth  in  shining  panoply,  clothed 
with  majesty  as  with  a  garment! — Her  voice  terrifies 
arrogant  tyranny,  her  sight  cowers  cunning  greed  and  fills 
with  dismay  defrauding  selfishness,  her  scepter  smites  with 
paralysis  the  hand  of  oppression,  her  foot  is  on  the  breast 
of  the  robber  and  the  murderer.  She  says:  "Let  there 
be  love,"  and  mercy  appears  in  the  midst  of  the  din  and 
fury  of  the  universal  war  of  all  against  all.  She  stands 
between  the  strong  and  the  weak,  between  the  smiter  and 
.the  smitten,  between  the  crusher  and  the  crushed.  She 
causes  the  tears  of  pity  to  flow,  that  wash  away  the  blood 
of  the  innocent,  she  stills  with  the  whispers  of  loving 
kindness  the  shrieks  of  those  trampled  under  foot,  she  pours 
the  balm  of  brotherly  compassion  into  the  wounds  afflicted 
by  the  hands  of  cruelty.  She  gathers  together  weeping 
orphans  and  places  them  in  palaces  of  education. 

Oh,  Free-will  of  man,  glorious  incarnation  of  the 
Omnipotent  Will,  thou  commandest  all  nature  to  be  a 
servant  unto  man — and  behold  all  the  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse yoke  themselves  as  obedient  slaves  to  the  chariot  of 
his  mind,  and  carry  their  triumphant  lord  from  one  end  of 
the  earth  to  the  other!  They  uproot  for  him  the  primeval 
forests,  they  drive  from  their  slimy  abodes  the  foes  of  man, 
the  demons  of  fever  and  pestilence.  They  cause  the  face 
of  a  continent  to  smile  with  growing  abundance  for  men. 
They  tear  open  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and  bring  up  to 
him  immense  treasures  of  gold  and  silver,  iron  and  copper 
and  other  metals,  and  work  them  up  for  him  into  count- 
less forms  of  use  and  beauty.  They  dig  his  fuel  in  the 
heart  of  the  earth  and  bring  it  into  his  dwelling  place. 


74 

They  build  his  cities  and  light  up  his  streets  and  houses, 
making  night  to  shine  like  the  day.  They  build  roads  of 
iron  for  him  and  carry  him  through  the  land  with  the 
velocity  of  a  flying  bird.  With  wondrous  speed  they  waft 
him  in  swimming  palaces  across  the  oceans,  and  make 
him  laugh  at  the  terrors  of  the  sea.  They  flash  his  mes- 
sages from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other  with  a  swift- 
ness greater  than  the  swiftness  of  thought.  The  free-will 
of  man,  the  mightiest  and  divinest  power  of  reason 
has  created  a  new  world,  the  higher  world  of  human 
society,  and  superimposed  it  upon  the  world  of  nature. 
Human  society  is  the  flower  of  all  creation.  Growing 
through  countless  ages,  developing  from  lower  to  ever 
higher  forms,  rising  from  worm  to  man,  life  at  last  blos- 
somed forth  and  ripened  into  the  perfect  fruit  of  human 
society.  Who  but  the  infinite  Self,  yearning  to  reveal 
His  wisdom,  His  goodness  and  power,  has  taught  thee,  O 
man,  the  wonderful  cunning  to  unite  and  blend  millions 
and  tens  of  millions  of  lives,  minds  and  wills,  making 
them  one  life,  one  will  and  mind,  but  vaster,  mightier? 
For  society  is  not  merely  the  sum-total  of  all  the  individ- 
uals which  it  comprises.  A  nation  is  a  living  organism,  it 
has  a  national  will,  a  national  conscience,  national  aims 
and  destinies.  The  mind  of  the  nation  thinks,  meditates, 
and  produces  a  national  philosophy;  the  heart  of  the 
nation  feels  sorrow  and  joy,  is  stirred  by  hope  and  despair, 
is  elated  by  a  noble  pride  or  saddened  by  a  sense  of 
shame,  and  these  feelings  utter  themselves  forth  in  national 
poetry.  The  conscience  of  the  nation,  yearning  after  the 
ideal  of  righteousness,  expresses  itself  in  ever  truer  laws 
of  justice  and  ordinances  of  equity.  The  energy  of  the 
nation  puts  forth  efforts  and  brings  forth  all  the  wonders 
and  works  of  national  industry.  The  intelligence  of  the 
nation  asserts  its  liberty,  loves  freedom  better  than  life 
itself,  rises  in  fierce  indignation  against  those  that  assail  it, 
and  tramples  under  foot  those  who  dare  offer  it'  violence. 


75 

All  these  elements  and  forces,  all  these  works  and  arts, 
make  up  the  civilization  of  a  nation,  they  are  all  the  mani- 
festations of  the  growing  national  mind  and  will. 

But  the  nations  themselves  are  not  self-centered  beings, 
they  are  not  isolated  immortal  individuals,  each  moving 
by  a  spontaneous  force  of  its  own  toward  a  different  goal 
without  bearing  any  vital  relations  to  one  another.  All 
the  nations  of  the  world,  especially  the  leading  nations, 
that  create  light  and  destroy  darkness,  that  strive  to  sub- 
due the  earth  and  conquer  nature,  that  endeavor  to  work 
out  the  problems  of  justice  and  mercy,  are  but  mem- 
bers of  a  greater  body,  living  parts  of  the  undying, 
never-aging  body  of  mankind.  All  national  souls,  all 
national  wills,  are  one  soul,  one  will.  The  pernicious  idea 
that  every  nation  is  a  being  separated  as  to  its  material 
interests,  intellectual  aspirations,  and  historical  destinies, 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  selfish  belief  that  every 
people  should  have  a  heart  only  for  its  own  prosperity  and 
be  absolutely  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  other  people, 
the  doctrine  that  every  nation  should  with  fierce  egotism 
endeavor  to  thrive  and  grow  rich  at  any  price,  though  the 
other  civilized  nations  perish  in  consequence  of  it,  is 
a  return  to  the  views,  a  reversion  to  the  instincts  of 
primitive  barbarism.  The  idea  of  humanity,  the  idea  of 
the  fellowship  and  brotherhood  of  all  men  was  utterly 
unknown,  was  simply  inconceivable  to  barbarous  antiquity, 
for  the  reason  that  every  people  had  a  national  god  of  its 
own,  who  loved  and  protected  only  his  own  people,  his  own 
children,  and  hated  and  tried  to  exterminate  the  children 
of  the  other  gods,  his  personal  foes.  But  the  growth  of 
reason  has  not  only  borne  the  fruits  of  humanity,  it  has 
also  given  birth  to  the  idea  of  humanity.  Mankind  is  the 
strong,  immortal  son  of  God,  in  whom  His  will,  His  wis- 
dom, His  justice  incarnate  themselves.  All  the  nations  of 
the  earth  are  members  of  this  body,  and  the  souls  of  the 
nations  are  manifestations  of  this  soul.  All  mankind  is 


76 

one  being.  If  one  member  inflicts  pain  on  another,  the 
pain  shoots  through  the  whole  body  of  mankind.  It 
Germany  and  France  lacerate  each  other,  causing  each 
other  to  bleed  from  gaping  wounds,  humanity  loses  part  of 
its  life-blood.  If  misery  eats  into  the  vitals  of  one  nation, 
corruption  will  slowly  but  surely  spread  through  the 
whole  system  of  humanity.  If  one  person  becomes  demor- 
alized and  degraded  through  poverty,  despotism,  and  sin, 
demoralization  and  degradation  will  gradually  diffuse 
themselves  through  the  whole  organism  of  mankind.  If 
knowledge  and  truth  are  generated  in  the  mind  of  one 
people,  light  shines  in  darkness  to  the  whole  of  humanity. 
If  liberty  is  showering  her  blessings  on  one  nation,  the 
ministering  powers  divine,  that  wait  upon  the  progress  of 
man,  will  sow  the  seeds  of  blessing  in  every  land,  and  in 
the  fullness  of  time  cause  them  to  sprout  and  blossom  to 
all  the  families  of  the  earth.  If  one  people  does  justice, 
loves  mercy,  and  walks  humbly  before  the  Eternal,  the 
soul  of  humanity  gathers  new  strength,  fresh  fountains  of 
love  open  in  the  heart  of  the  whole  race,  and  mankind 
comes  to  take  up  a  higher  station  on  the  mountain  of  God. 
For  humanity  is  one  being,  has  one  life,  one  breath,  one 
soul,  one  growing  reason. 

But  the  life  of  all  the  men  and  all  the  nations  of  today- 
is  but  one  short  hour  in  the  immortal  life  of  mankind,  a 
passing  incarnation  in  the  existence  of  the  mighty  and 
ever-growing  son  of  God,  of  humanity.  All  the  genera- 
tions and  all  the  nations  that  have  been  live  in  us,  and  we 
and  they  will  live  on  in  generations  to  come,  in  nations  to 
be  born,  till  time  will  be  no  more!  Hebrews  we  are,  and 
spiritual  sons  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  whether  we  call 
ourselves  Israelites,  Christians,  Mohammedans,  or  by  any 
other  name.  The  spirit  of  the  psalmists  is  in  our  soul, 
their  holy  fire  rises  kindling  in  our  breast.  We  have  stood 
with  Moses  on  the  mount  of  revelations,  we  have  heard 
with  the  redeemed  ones  the  Ten  Words  of  religion  and 


77 

morality,  we  have  seen  with  Isaiah  the  vision  of  the  king- 
dom of  righteousness,  we  burn  with  Jeremiah  in  indigna- 
tion over  the  oppression  of  the  weak,  the  iniquity  of  the 
great.     We   have  meditated   with  Job  over  the  problems 
and  woes  of  human  existence,  and  with  him  we  wish  to  be 
admitted  behind  the  veil,  where  the  soul  might  find  an 
answer  to  all  its  perplexing  questions.     We  have  threaded 
the  labyrinthine  mazes  of  life  with  the  teachers  of  love 
and  righteousness,  we  have  listened  to  the  tidings  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man.     We  have  suffered  and  bled  and  felt 
the  agonies  of  death  with  those  who  died  for  the  truth. 
Greeks  we  are  all,  and  sunny  children  of  the  genius  oi 
Hellas.     The  spirit  of   Homer  dwells  in  us.     The  music 
and  beauty  of  his  verse  dwells  in  our  soul.     The  solemn 
chants  of  ^schylus  vibrate  through  our  heart;  the  loveli- 
ness, the  glory,  and  the  truth  of  Sophocles'  dramas  fill  our 
mind.     We  saw  Jove  leap  radiant  with  ideal  perfection 
from    the    crowned   head    of  Phidias,    we   saw  Praxiteles 
breathe   the    breath    of    divine    beauty    into   the    plastic 
marble.     We  saw  with  our  minds's  eye  Harmony  building 
the  Pantheon  at  Athens,  and  beheld  Art  placing  Pallas 
Athene  as  guardian  goddess  upon  its  pinnacle.     The  spirit 
of  divine  Plato  is  in  us,  trie  eternal  ideas  and  imperishable 
forms  of  things  discovered  by  his  genius,  have  become 
spiritual  forces  in  our  lives.     We  all  are  Romans,  though 
the  arms  of  our  ancestors  may  have  clashed  in  fierce  con- 
flict with   those  of  Rome.     The  spirit  of  their  laws  and 
institutions,  of  their   literature  and  art  animates  us,   the 
result  of  their  civilization  forms  part  of  our  being.     We 
are  all  children  of  the  Italians  of  the  Renaissance,  we  are 
spiritual  sons  of  Dante    and   Tasso,  of  Michael    Angelo, 
Raphael,  of  Galileo  and  Bruno.     We  are  all  the  spiritual 
children  of  Spain  and  France,  of  Germany  and  England. 
Nay,  even  ancient  India,  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Persia  have 
a  share  in  our  being !     And  all  that  the  living  families  of 
the  earth  are,  with  all  the  life  of  the  past  that  in  us  is,  will 


78 

live  on  through  countless  cycles  of  time,  ever  purer, 
mightier,  richer,  and  holier  in  the  one  glorious  child  of 
God,  in  imaging,  undying  humanity.  And  all  the  powers 
of  mind  and  heart  already  developed,  all  the  arts  and 
sciences  which  the  living  and  the  departed  nations  have 
bodied  forth,  all  the  conquests  of  justice  and  love  which 
civilization  has  made  to  this  day,  are  but  the  beginning 
and  prophecy  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness,  the  strength 
and  beauty,  which  Man  the  thinker,  Man  the  artist,  Man 
the  free  agent,  will  unfold  in  ages  to  come. 


79 


II. 


THE  MORAL  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

The  contributions  which  the  American  people  have 
hitherto  made  toward  the  world's  civilization  lie  chiefly  in 
the  domain  of  the  free-will,  of  social  and  political  ethics. 
Considerable  as  is  the  part  America  is  playing  as  a  pro- 
ducer of  thought,  as  a  creator  of  science,  most  respect- 
able and  promising  as  are  the  beginnings  of  American  art, 
yet  whatever  has  been  accomplished  in  these  fields  of 
civilization  dwindles  into  insignificance  when  compared 
with  the  immense  service  which  the  American  people  has 
rendered  and  is  still  rendering  mankind  as  a  humaniz- 
ing and  moralizing  power. 

As  far  as  human  beings  can  be  original  in  anything  as 
individuals  or  nations,  the  genius  of  the  American  people 
has  in  this  respect  proved  itself  original  in  the  noblest 
sense  of  the  word,  original  as  an  uplifter  of  humanity. 
It  has  made  the  highest  of  all  ethical  ideas,  the  idea  of 
the  inviolable  moral  dignity  of  every  man,  the  central 
force  of  its  social  and  political  life. 

Thousands  of  years  after  the  spirit  of  Hebrew  prophecy 
had  promulgated  the  doctrine  that  every  man  is  made  in 
the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  crowned  with  the  attri- 
butes of  reason  and  free-will,  the  fathers  of  this  nation 
and  their  children  after  them,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
have  taken  the  doctrine  of  the  godlike  nature  and  majesty 
of  every  human  being  in  all  solemn  seriousness.  They 
have  made  it  the  soul  and  essence  of  the  constitution,  and 
with  fearless  consistency  introduced  it  into  the  whole 
practice  of  social  and  political  life.  The  ideal  of  justice, 
as  conceived  and  proclaimed  by  the  prophets,  springing 
from  their  lofty  conceptions  of  man,  is  the  informing 


So 

principle    of  the  organic  laws  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  animating  sonl  of  their  national  life. 

The  leading  principles  of  the  American  commonwealth 
are:  Every  man  is  free  by  nature,  because  he  is  a  free 
agent;  every  man  is  the  peer  of  any  other  man  as  a  mem- 
ber of  society,  because  he  is  a  rational  being;  no  law  of 
the  state  shall  interfere  with  the  growth  and  the  com- 
pletest  possible  development  of  the  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  powers  of  any  man;  no  church  shall  put  chains 
on  the  conscience  and  faith  of  any  human  being;  no 
social  arrangement  shall  prevent  any  man  from  using  all 
the  faculties  and  all  legitimate  means  for  attaining  his 
happiness;  no  class  distinctions  shall  place  any  set  of  men 
above  the  others  in  the  scale  of  honor ;  no  class  privileges 
shall  entitle  some  men  or  families  to  live  and  thrive  upon 
the  labor  of  their  fellow-men. 

These  ideas  have  created  the  American  nation.  They 
have  moulded  the  character  of  its  sons  and  daughters; 
they  stand  behind  all  institutions  and  party  organizations; 
they  are  the  chief  motive  power  in  the  activity  of  the 
individual  and  determine  the  great  movements  of  national 
life;  they  are  present  everywhere,  running  as  a  weft 
through  the  warp  of  American  history.  Since  these  ideas 
first  came  forth  from  the  soul  of  Yahve's  seers,  the  apostles 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  up  to  the  time  when  they 
created  a  nation  in  their  image  and  likeness,  they 
have  flitted  about  as  disembodied  spirits,  from  land  to 
land,  trying  in  vain  to  take  up  their  abode  now  in  this 
and  now  in  that  nation.  Though  at  times  homage  was 
paid  to  them  in  articles  of  faith  or  in  Utopian  dreams  of 
poets,  no  nation  allowed  them  to  enter  and  change  its 
heart,  and  become  the  vital  principles  of  its  thought  and 
conduct.  The  heart  of  every  people  was  still  possessed 
by  the  old  spirit  of  paganism,  which  can  not  dwell  together 
in  the  same  breast  with  the  spirit  of  monotheistic  or  pro- 
phetic humanity.  The  Old  World,  ancient,  medieval,  and 


8i 

also  modern,  till  the  appearance  of  the  New  World  as  a 
factor  of  civilization,  was  swayed  by  the  following  social 
and  political  ideas:  All  men  are  not  born  free,  and  should 
not  be  granted  the  full  enjoyment  and  blessings  of  free- 
dom; all  men  are  not  equal,  and  should  not  be  accorded 
equal  rights  and  equal  advantages  in  the  pursuit  of 
material  well-being,  intellectual  culture,  and  moral  devel- 
opment. Certain  men,  certain  families,  certain  classes  and 
races  are,  by  virtue  of  birth,  by  right  of  conquest,  or  by 
dint  of  fancied  higher  wisdom,  superior  to  other  men, 
families,  classes,  and  races,  and  are  entitled  to  special 
privileges  and  exceptional  advantages.  Until  American 
influences  began  to  produce  profound  changes,  the  society 
of  the  Old  World  was  dominated  by  these  ideas. 

How  could  it  be  otherwise?  States  have  always  been 
formed  by  a  conquering  race,  that  subjected  and  often 
enslaved  the  conquered.  Might  was  not  only  right,  might 
was  also  virtue.  The  conquerors  considered  themselves 
better  men  than  the  subject  race,  because  they  were 
stronger  men  and  fiercer  fighters.  The  conquerors  of 
every  laud  and  time  formed  the  nobility  and  aristocracy, 
that  looked  upon  their  subjects  as  their  legitimate  prey, 
lived  in  luxury  upon  the  labor  of  the  toiling  masses, 
treated  them  with  merciless  selfishness,  and  looked  down 
upon  them  with  unbounded  contempt,  regarding  them  as 
inferior  beings  that  were  hardly  human.  As  the  Fiji 
Islanders  believed  that  only  the  nobles  had  souls,  so  did, 
and  to  a  large  extent  still  do,  the  noblemen  of  Europe 
imagine  themselves  to  have  better  blood  in  their  veins,  to 
belong  to  a  superior  sort  of  humanity,  and  therefore  to 
have  a  natural  right  to  feed  upon  the  common  herd  and 
bear  sway  over  them.  Within  the  nobility  again,  the  rul- 
ing dynasty,  the  royal  or  imperial  family,  towers  high 
above  all  the  rest.  It  believes  itself,  and  is  believed  by 
others,  to  be  somehow  made  of  infinitely  finer  stuff  than 
common  humanity,  to  be  by  nature  endowed  with  extra- 
ordinary qualities  of  beauty,  of  intellect,  and  manly  virtues, 


82 

and  to  be  born  into  the  world  with  the  inalienable  right  to 
govern  or  misgovern  millions  of  men,  their  so-called  sub- 
jects, to  live  in  wasteful  luxury  on  their  toil,  to  imprison 
and  even  enslave  them  for  disobedience  or  for  daring  to 
criticise  their  follies  and  vices.  This  is  the  blasphemous 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  which  has  been,  and 
in  many  countries  still  is,  defended  with  fanatical  zeal  by 
teachers  of  religion,  who  claim  to  be  deep  in  the  secrets  of 
God  Almighty.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  this  doctrine  is 
but  the  somewhat  modified  belief  of  savages  and  barbarians, 
who  hold  that  their  rulers  are  gods  or  descended  from 
gods.  The  priestly  castes  of  the  Old  World,  from  China 
and  India  in  the  East  to  Spain  in  the  West,  from  the 
Shamans  of  Siberia  down  to  Egypt,  ancient  and  modern, 
throughout  Africa  and  Southern  Asia,  deemed  themselves 
placed  high  above  the  mass  of  the  laymen,  standing  in 
closer  relations  to  the  Deity  than  the  rest  of  the  people, 
enjoying  His  special  favor,  entrusted  with  the  power  of 
delivering  man  from,  or  consigning  him  to,  perdition,  of 
opening  and  shutting  up  to  poor  mortals  the  passage  to 
the  land  of  the  blessed. 

These  religious  ideas  are  of  pagan  parentage.  They 
originated  in  a  time  when  every  family,  every  clan  and 
tribe  had  its  own  god,  who  cared  only  for  his  own  human 
kindred  and  worshipers.  These  gods  loved  especially 
those  zealous  servants  of  theirs  who  provided  them  daily 
with  the  blood  of  bulls  and  rams,  who  filled  their  nostrils 
with  the  sweet  savour  of  incense  and  burnt  offerings,  who 
tickled  their  ears  with  lavish  adulation,  and  flattered  them 
to  the  top  of  their  bent  with  sonorous  praises.  How,  then, 
should  a  layman  dare  to  compare  himself,  and  place  him- 
self side  by  side,  with  the  priests  who  were  the  favorites  of 
the  Deity?  How  could  men  dream  of  regarding  and 
treating  all  human  beings  as  their  equals,  since  there  was 
no  bond  of  common  humanity  between  them,  standing  as 
they  did  under  the  tutelary  protection  of  different  and 


83 

hostile  gods?  The  barbarous  conditions  of  society  gave 
birth  to  barbarous  religious  ideas,  and  these  in  their  turn 
reacted  on  society  and  kept  alive  and  strengthened  with 
their  sanction  the  inhuman  distinctions  between  man  and 
man,  between  high-born  and  low-born,  between  the  weak  and 
the  strong,  between  the  priest  and  the  layman.  The  great 
mass  of  the  people  was  held  in  profound  contempt  by  the 
few,  who  exploited  and  ill-used  them.  Their  bodies  were 
owned  by  kings  and  nobles,  their  souls  and  consciences 
were  held  in  trust  by  the  priesthood.  No  man  was  hon- 
ored because  he  was  a  human  being,  because  he  had  a  soul 
possessing  the  divine  attributes  of  free-will. 

It  was  against  these  degrading  distinctions,  which  a 
paganistic  and  barbarous  organization  of  society,  which 
the  selfishness  and  the  pride  of  the  mighty  and  the 
arrogance  of  priestly  castes,  had  made  between  man  and 
man,  that  the  religion  of  pure  humanity  rose  in  rebellion. 
Such  debasing  ideas  the  prophets  denounced  in  righteous 
indignation,  proclaiming  the  glad  tidings  that  all  men 
were  brothers,  that  all  men  were  children  of  the  one  and 
only  God,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  and  the  Father 
of  mankind,  that  all  men  were  alike  in  His  sight  and  love, 
because  He  breathed  into  them  all  the  living  breath  of 
reason,  and  made  them  all  in  the  image  of  His  own  free- 
dom, and  fashioned  them  in  the  likeness  of  His  own 
goodness.  "All  souls  are  mine,"  says  the  Eternal.  The 
soul  of  the  humblest  and  poorest  man  is  as  precious  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Lord  as  is  the  soul  of  a  king.  The  layman  is 
as  near  the  throne  of  God  as  is  the  priest,  whose  claim  to 
superiority  is  based  on  the  fact  of  his  being  a  burner  of 
incense  and  offerer  of  sacrifices.  Incense  and  burnt-offer- 
ings are  an  abomination  to  Him.  He  delights  not  in  the 
blood  of  bullocks  and  the  fat  of  rams.  Justice  and  mercy 
are  the  offerings  He  requires  at  the  hand  of  man,  not 
chants  and  lip-deep  praises.  He  loves  the  poor  and  lowly, 
He  is  their  guardian  and  the  avenger  of  their  wrongs.  He 


84 

hates  the  oppressor,  the  mighty  and  proud,  whom  he  will 
humble  to  the  dust.  The  infinite  moral  dignity  inherent 
in  every  human  soul  is  the  burden  of  the  prophet's  gospel. 
He  made  man  a  little  less  than  a  god,  and  crowned  him 
with  honor  and  majesty.  The  soul  of  man  is  a  lamp  of 
God,  searching  the  innermost  chambers  of  being.  He  has 
given  him  dominion  over  all  His  works,  and  destined  him 
to  subdue  the  earth  with  the  might  of  his  knowledge  and 
free-will,  and  bear  rule  over  all  her  creatures.  Such  were 
the  prophets'  lofty  conceptions  of  the  nature  of  man,  such 
were  their  solemn  declarations  of  the  equal  rights  of  all 
men,  flowing  from  their  equality  before  God. 

These  ideas  went  forth  from  Zion  to  conquer  the 
world  and  in  course  of  time  divided  into  three  spiritual 
armies,  into  Yahvism  proper,  or  Judaism,  Christianity,  and 
Islam.  But  they  met  everywhere  with  fierce  and  deter- 
mined resistance.  The  old  pagan  ideas  were  intrenched 
behind  the  old  barbarous  order  of  society.  Here  and 
there  a  breach  was  made  by  the  invading  new  ideas.  But 
the  walls  of  ancient  social  iniquity  remained  standing, 
and  on  the  ramparts  kings  and  noblemen  and,  alas,  also 
most  of  the  priests,  were  fighting  with  the  arms  of  brutal 
force  and  with  the  witchcraft  of  superstition  against  the 
sacred  host  of  humanity.  All  through  the  night  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  down  to  the  founding  of  this  republic,  the 
battle  was  waged  with  undecided  issue  between  the  old 
and  the  new,  between  the  pride  and  the  selfishness,  the 
greed  and  ambition,  of  the  few  and  mighty,  and  the 
rights  and  the  moral  dignity  of  the  down-trodden  masses. 
The  Reformation  and  the  Peasants'  War  in  Germany,  the 
emancipation  of  the  serfs  in  England,  the  English  revolu- 
tion and  the  rise  of  the  Puritans,  the  successful  revolt  of 
the  Netherlands  from  Spain,  and  kindred  phenomena  pre- 
ceding or  following  them,  were  unmistakable  and  hopeful 
signs  that  the  struggle  was  bravely  going  on  between  the 
children  of  the  prophets  and  the  children  of  paganism, 
and  was  big  with  promise  for  the  future. 


85 

Yet  this  struggle  might  have  lasted  on  through  many 
more  centuries  without  victory  perching  on  the  banners  of 
social  righteousness  and  human  honor,  had  not  the  God  of 
history,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  assigned  a  virgin  continent 
to  the  creative  ideas  of  humanity.  Here  they  did  not 
come  into  hostile  contact  with  old  pagan  ideas  embodied 
in  old  institutions  and  class  interests;  here  they  were  free 
to  form  a  new  nation  out  of  the  most  plastic  materials 
which  the  spirit  of  personal  independence  wafted  across 
the  ocean  in  ships  of  destiny.  The  innermost  principle  of 
life  in  this  new  nation  is  the  moral  dignity  of  the  individ- 
ual, respect  for  the  personal  honor  of  every  member  of 
society,  be  he  ever  so  poor  or  lowly.  The]  sturdy  yeomen 
of  England,  the  stout-hearted  puritans,  who  left  home  and 
kindred  to  flee  from  the  abominations  of  the  old  order  of 
society,  left  behind  them  the  nobles  and  the  priests  of  the 
Old  World,  its  vicious  traditions  and  class  distinctions. 
They  landed  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Bible  in  their  heart,  the  sword  of  manly 
independence  in  their  right  and  the  spade  of  tireless 
industry  in  their  left  hand.  Here  in  the  vast  wilderness, 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  bloodthirsty  savages,  every  man 
had  to  work  for  himself  and  defend  himself,  or  miserably 
perish.  Here  every  colonist  had  to  develop  the  finest 
qualities  of  self-dependence  or  go  under.  Here,  where 
every  man  stood  face  to  face  with  the  realities  of  life, 
where  every  man  had  to  work  out  his  own  salvation,  the 
shams  and  shows  of  royalty,  the  exacting  prerogatives  of 
aristocracy  were  seen  to  be  snares  and  illusions,  the  night- 
mare of  a  barbarous  past.  In  this  soil,  unencumbered 
with  the  noxious  social  weeds  of  Europe,  the  ideas  of 
humanity  found  free  scope;  here  they  were  to  take  up 
their  abode  in  liberty-loving  hearts,  and  embody  them- 
selves in  characters  of  exceptional  moral  vigor.  After 
centuries  of  slow  formation  there  appeared  a  new  nation 
in  the  arena  of  civilization,  the  like  of  which  the  world 


86 

had  not  seen.  The  God  of  the  Universe  who  once  spake, 
"Let  us  make  man  in  our  image  and  likeness,"  He  it  is 
that  says  through  the  mind  of  the  American  free  man: 
"Touch  not  my  anointed,  touch  not  the  majesty  of  the 
least  of  men,  because  every  human  being  is  an  anointed 
king  by  the  grace  of  his  reason,  by  the  divine  right  of  his 
free-will." 

The  Americans  are  indeed  a  nation  of  kings.  Every 
American  is  conscious  of  his  own  worth  and  dignity. 
The  laboring  man  does  not  stand  in  cringing  humility 
before  the  rich  man  who  gives  him  employment ;  the  poor 
farmer  does  not  look  up  with  awe  to  the  owner  of  vast 
estates;  the  simple  citizen  does  not  regard  those  in 
authority  as  superior  beings.  Self-respect  clothes  every 
man  as  with  a  garment,  and  woe  betide  those  who  will 
attempt  to  offer  violence  to  his  honor !  In  the  Old  World 
honor  is  meted  out  to  men  by  rulers;  the  bestowal  of  a 
title  will  raise,  the  taking  away  of  a  title  will  lower,  a  man 
in  the  scale  of  human  existence.  Classes  are  placed  above 
classes  in  the  amphitheater  of  fictitious  honor,  and  there 
is  a  disgraceful  and  ceaseless  scramble  to  climb  up  to 
a  higher  tier  and  be  Seated  among  their  betters,  their 
betters  being  those  dubbed  with  a  title,  adorned  with  a 
ribbon,  or  bearing  the  insignia  of  an  office. 

In  America  everybody  feels  and  knows  that  the  name 
of  man  is  the  highest  title  of  honor;  that  honor  is  seated 
in  one's  character,  and  that  the  whole  world  can  not  rob 
us  of  one  tittle  of  it  as  long  as  we  do  not  deprive  ourselves 
of  it  by  dishonest  acts.  The  Old  World  is  richer  than 
the  New  in  masterpieces  of  art,  and  it  possesses  more  and 
finer  cathedrals ;  it  has  a  larger  number  of  trained  scholars. 
But  America  glories  in  what  is  of  infinitely  greater 
value — in  being  inhabited  by  a  people  whose  soul  is  pene- 
trated by  the  ideas  of  personal  freedom,  of  human  dignity, 
of  personal  moral  worth,  by  means  of  which  the  great 
mass  of  the  nation  has  been  elevated  to  a  degree  unknown 


87 

in  any  other  country.  America  is  incomparably  richer  than 
any  other  people,  ancient  or  modern,  in  what  is  the  highest 
product  of  civilization,  in  superior,  high-aspiring  characters, 
in  men  adorned  with  every  quality  of  humanity,  in  men  and 
women  that  are  types  of  noble  manhood  and  womanhood. 
So  much  have  the  American  ideas,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  prophetic  ideas  planted  in  a  new  soil,  done  for  the 
American  people;  such  are  the  precious  fruits  of  civiliza- 
tion that  have  ripened  in  these  United  States.  But  their 
beneficial  influence  has  not  been  confined  exclusively  to 
America  and  the  American  people.  These  American  ideas 
have  gone  forward  to  conquer  the  earth,  not  as  fleshless 
and  bloodless  theories  speaking  to  men  in  the  low  whis- 
pers of  entreaty,  but  as  living  incarnations,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  a  mighty  national  reality.  They  have  gone  forth 
from  America  as  a  spiritual  army,  and  have  invaded  the 
Old  World  ;  they  have  radically  changed  the  views  of  the 
civilized  nations  regarding  the  inalienable  rights  of  man ; 
they  are  burying  out  of  sight  ancient  wrongs,  laughing  to 
scorn  the  pretentious  of  noble  birth ;  they  are  withering 
with  their  breath  the  prerogatives  of  aristocracy  ;  they  are 
taking  away  unearned  and  abused  possessions  from  vicious 
idlers  and  restoring  them  to  their  rightful  owners  ;  they 
are  tearing  away  its  inherited  tinsel  from  royalty,  and 
washing  the  stage  paint  from  off  the  faces  of  kings. 


88 

III. 

THE  ECONOMIC  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

The  practical  recognition  of  the  infinite  moral  dignity 
of  every  human  being  forms  the  key-note  to  the  whole 
social  and  political  life  of  the  American  people.  We  took 
occasion  to  observe,  that  the  belief  in  the  equality  of  all 
men  before  God  and  society,  which  for  the  first  time  in 
history  has  been  intensely  realized  by  the  American  people, 
and  embodied  by  it  in  its  organic  laws,  has  developed  in 
the  American  a  high  sense  of  self-respect  and  personal 
honor,  and  that  it  has  tended  to  bring  forth  in  America  an 
incomparably  larger  number  of  superior  characters,  ot 
noble  types  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  than  is  to  be 
found  in  any  other  country. 

The  genius  of  the  American  nation  has  brought  about 
the  moral  emancipation  of  the  individual  from  the  debas- 
ing influence  of  caste.  Every  individual  is  by  virtue  of 
his  reason  and  free-will  the  sovereign  of  his  own  person. 
Every  man  is  left  to  work  out  his  own  salvation.  The  indi- 
vidual has  his  center  of  gravity  not  outside  of  himself,  but 
within  his  own  personality.  The  free-will  of  every  man  is 
the  pivot  of  his  whole  existence.  Every  human  being  shall 
walk  by  the  light  of  his  own  understanding,  and  use  all 
his  powers  in  the  way  he  deems  most  conducive  to  his 
welfare,  as  long  as  he  does  no  injury  or  injustice  to  his 
fellow-men.  The  greatest  possible  freedom  of  action  is 
vouchsafed  to  the  individual,  limited  only  by  the  like 
freedom  of  action  to  be  enjoyed  by  other  individuals. 
This  is  the  new  fruitful  principle  which  the  American 
people  has  introduced  into  the  life  of  mankind,  the  vital 
principle  of  the  economic  freedom  of  the  individual,  or 
the  right  of  every  person  to  act  and  exert  himself  in  what- 
ever manner  he  may  choose,  to  employ  all  his  faculties 


89 

and  means  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge,  according  to 
what  his  interests  dictate,  provided  he  does  not  encroach 
upon  the  rights  and  interests  of  other  persons.  This  prin- 
ciple put  into  practice  in  every  department  of  human 
activity,  within  the  short  space  of  a  century  has  created 
the  unparalleled  material  civilization  of  America  and 
much  else  that  is  even  higher  and  more  valuable  than 
mere  material  prosperity. 

It  is  not  the  national  government  at  Washington  nor 
the  various  State  governments,  but  the  untrammeled  will- 
power of  individuals,  the  irrepressible  energy,  the  bold 
spirit  of  enterprise  of  private  persons,  that  have  produced 
in  America  the  general  prosperity,  the  wide  diffusion  of 
property,  the  wholesome  and  comfortable  life  of  the 
masses,  which  is  the  envy  and  admiration  of  the  Old 
World,  and  which  steadily  acts  as  an  irresistible  stimula- 
tive influence  upon  all  civilized  nations.  The  complete 
emancipation  of  human  labor  from  the  trammels  of  bane- 
ful restrictions  and  prescriptions,  from  the  oppressive 
guardianship  of  the  state,  in  America,  and  wherever  the 
example  of  America  has  been  imitated,  has  set  free  all  the 
latent  forces  of  individual  minds  and  wills.  Consequently, 
there  have  been  brought  into  play  tremendous  powers, 
which  in  all  lands  and  times  hitherto  have  been  more  or 
less  suppressed  or  kept  in  check  by  pernicious  laws  and 
regulations,  originating  in  low,  primitive  conceptions  of 
man:  the  same  pagan  and  barbarian  ideas,  which  made 
such  vicious  distinctions  between  man  and  man,  between 
low-born  and  high-born,  between  subjects  and  rulers, 
which  reserved  all  freedom,  all  dignity,  and  all  enjoyments 
of  life  to  privileged  castes,  which  held  the  toiling  masses 
in  profoundest  contempt,  and  kept  them  in  an  abject 
state  of  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  degradation. 
These  practices  naturally  enough  put  all  productive  labor 
in  chains,  caged  it  within  narrow  and  selfish  restraints, 
and  hampered  its  progress  at  every  step.  Throughout 


9o 

countless  ages  the  toiling  masses  either  were  directly 
owned  as  slaves  or  serfs  by  the  ruling  classes,  or  were 
indirectly  their  servants  by  dint  of  an  iniquitous  order 
of  society.  Only  the  barest  means  of  subsistence  were 
allowed  the  miserable  toilers  and  producers,  while  the 
bulk  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor  went  to  maintain  a  proud 
and  overbearing  aristocracy  in  luxury  and  idleness.  The 
pages  of  history  are  wet  with  the  tears  and  stained  with  the 
bloody  sweat  of  the  hapless  millions  who  were  doomed 
from  their  birth  to  hard  work,  in  order  to  provide  a  privi- 
leged minority  with  the  requisites  of  a  cultured  and 
refined  life,  while  they  themselves  were  prevented  by  pov- 
erty, toil,  and  cruel  laws  from  having  any  share  or  part  in 
it!  Labor  was  despised,  because  it  was  enslaved,  because 
the  so-called  upper  classes  held  it  in  abhorrence.  The 
lower  classes,  the  toilers  of  the  earth,  the  producers  of 
whatever  material  wealth  existed,  were  disheartened,  with- 
out hope  and  without  aspiration.  Being  underfed,  their 
physical  powers  were  stunted;  being  untaught,  their  mental 
powers  were  dwarfed;  being  without  the  stimulus  of 
self-interest  in  their  occupation,  without  the  inspiration  of 
self-respect,  they  lacked  the  moral  vigor  and  ambition  to 
develop  all  their  faculties,  and  bring  them  to  bear  on  the 
work  before  them.  The  pre-American  order  of  society  not 
only  was  shamelessly  unjust  in  the  distribution  of  the  fruits 
of  labor,  but  also  it  was  extremely  wasteful  and  econom- 
ically inefficient.  Largely  suppressing  the  motives  for 
self-exertion  in  the  masses,  paralyzing  the  mainspring  of 
the  will,  it  was  able  to  call  into  activity  but  an  exceedingly 
small  part  of  the  latent  human  forces,  it  succeeded  in 
enlisting  but  an  inconsiderable  amount  of  the  available 
talent  and  moral  energy  in  the  service  of  civilization. 
Before  the  opposite  tendencies  and  healthful  conditions 
began  to  manifest  themselves  in  England,  and  reached 
their  culminating  point  in  America,  society  tied  up  most 
of  its  own  arteries,  and  starved  the  rest  of  the  body,  to 


91 

overfeed  its  head,  the  upper  classes.  As  soon  as  the  ruling 
classes  became  effeminate  through  luxury  and  its  attendant 
evils,  as  soon  as  their  physical,  mental,  and  moral  vitality 
began  to  break  down,  the  whole  body  politic  was  smitten 
with  incurable  paralysis.  For,  there  were  no  recuperative 
powers  arising  from  the  great  masses,  and  no  fresh  ele- 
ments to  take  the  place  of  those  that  had  fallen  into  decay. 
This  explains  the  sudden  downfall  and  rapid  dissolution 
of  such  societies  ancient,  medieval,  and  modern,  the 
destruction  of  such  mighty  kingdoms,  as  had  seemed  to  be 
established  for  eternity.  This  is  the  retribution  which 
has  overtaken  and  will  overtake  those  societies  whose 
lower  strata  consist  of  plundered,  impoverished,  ignorant, 
and  despised  masses,  and  whose  upper  strata  are  held  in 
position  only  by  the  cohesive  power  of  selfishness,  greed, 
and  the  heartless  pride  of  caste. 

Upon  such  states  and  kingdoms  the  prophets  pro- 
nounced the  doom  of  the  omnipotent  God  of  justice:  that 
their  strength  shall  swiftly  wane,  and  their  pride  be 
humbled  to  the  dust,  that  they  shall  perish  in  their 
iniquity,  and  rise  no  more.  The  seers  of  Yahve,  who 
proclaimed  the  godlike  nature  of  every  human  soul  and 
the  equality  of  all  men  as  children  of  God,  were  filled 
with  burning  indignation  against  kings  and  nobles  who 
devoured  the  substance  of  the  people.  They  denounced  in 
unmeasured  terms  the  mighty  and  the  rich  who  appropri- 
ated to  themselves  by  means  of  wicked  laws  the  fruits  of 
the  labor  of  the  poor  and  the  weak.  "Woe  to  those  who 
join  house  to  house,  and  field  to  field,  that  they  alone  may 
dwell  in  the  land !  Woe  to  them  that  take  away  the  children 
of  the  people,  to  make  them  their  servants  to  till  their  lands 
and  watch  their  vineyards !  Because  of  the  oppression  of 
the  toilers  of  the  land,  the  whole  land  shall  become  deso- 
late and  be  without  an  inhabitant.  Woe  to  the  despoilers, 
they  shall  wander  into  exile  and  be  a  by-word  and  a  hissing 
to  their  enemies!"  The  prophets  and  the  legislators  of 


92 

Israel  cared  very  little  for  fine-spun  theological  theories, 
but  they  set  their  whole  heart  upon  putting  a  hedge  of 
protection  around  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  upon  secur- 
ing to  every  man  the  reward  of  his  diligence.  It  is 
touching  to  see  the  prophets  and  law-givers  of  Israel 
grapple  with  the  gravest  of  all  social  problems,  the  problem 
of  preventing  the  rich  and  mighty  from  becoming  ever 
richer  and  mightier,  and  the  poor  and  weak  from  becoming 
ever  poorer  and  more  helpless.  Their  idea  of  society  is 
one  in  which  there  shall  be  no  poor,  no  disinherited  class, 
and  no  dominating  caste,  reveling  in  wealth  wrung  from 
their  subjects.  Many  remedies,  many  preventatives  were 
proposed  and  enacted  as  laws,  in  order  to  realize  the  ideal 
of  a  perfect  social  state  so  devoutly  wished  for  by  them. 

The  social  ideal  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  law-givers 
was  not  destroyed  with  the  destruction  of  the  Hebrew 
state,  nor  did  it  die  with  the  death  of  the  Israelitish  nation- 
ality. With  Yahvism  or  Judaism,  with  Christianity  or 
Islam,  it  entered  the  life  of  mankind  as  an  indestructible 
force,  slowly  but  irresistibly  to  revolutionize  men's  views 
regarding  the  inalienable  rights  of  every  individual  to  the 
free  use  of  his  faculties  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of 
his  industry,  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  the  old 
heathen  order  of  society,  and  to  build  up  a  new  society, 
not  made  with  the  hands  of  brute  selfishness,  but  with  the 
spiritual  hands  of  freedom,  of  equality,  and  human  dignity. 
Even  in  the  darkest  days  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  Hebrew 
social  ideals  were,  with  painful  slowness,  it  is  true,  but 
with  the  invincible  power  of  destiny,  preparing  the  Day  of 
the  Lord,  in  whose  noonday  brightness  seventy  millions  of 
freemen  are  now  basking  in  America.  It  redounds  to  the 
everlasting  glory  of  the  Church,  that  she  tried,  as  far  as 
her  influence  went,  to  bring  about  the  emancipation  of  the 
serfs,  and  at  least  to  mitigate  their  miserable  condition. 
Her  noblest  representatives  preached,  to  the  great  and 
powerful,  mercy  and  justice  toward  the  down-trodden,  and 


93 

often  stood  with  defiant  courage  between  the  brutality  and 
avarice  of  tyrants  and  their  helpless  subjects.  In  fact,  the 
Church  contained  within  herself  the  Hebrew  principle 
of  the  brotherhood  and  equality  of  men,  although  she 
regarded  only  good,  orthodox  Catholics  as  true  men  and 
brothers. 

Of  all  European  nations  England  was  the  first  to 
emancipate  the  serfs,  and  to  accord  at  least  some  semblance 
of  independence  and  free  movement  to  the  laboring  classes. 
The  Magna  Charta  abolished  the  despotic  power  of  the 
King,  and  began  to  establish  the  principle,  which  came  to 
be  the  corner-stone  of  the  American  Commonwealth,  that 
the  people  should  not  be  taxed  without  its  consent,  which 
means,  that  no  man's  labor  and  products  of  industry 
shall  be  taken  away  from  him  without  his  consent,  given 
through  his  representative  in  Parliament.  The  almost 
total  destruction  of  the  powerful  and  overbearing  Nor- 
man aristocracy  during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  changed  the 
nature,  and  diminished  the  prerogatives,  of  the  nobility, 
and  broke  the  spell  of  awe  with  which  the  common  people 
were  wont  to  look  up  to,  and  obey,  their  lords  as  their 
born  masters.  The  Reformation  brought  the  English 
still  nearer  to  the  fountain-head  of  the  social  idealism  of 
Hebrew  prophecy  and  legislation,  and  started  that  wonder- 
ful process  which  was  to  transform  the  English  into 
Israelites  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  word.  The  Puritans 
who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower  and  in  other  frail  ships, 
guided  across  the  tempestuous  sea  by  the  hand  of  Provi- 
dence, were  animated,  despite  their  bigotry  and  narrowness, 
by  the  true  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  law-givers. 
They  walked  by  the  light  of  the  Scriptures,  and  were 
resolved  to  form  a  Commonwealth  in  accordance  with  the 
social  laws  and  ideas  of  the  Bible.  They  fancied  they  saw 
in  the  Indians  the  degenerate  descendants  of  the  lost  tribes 
of  Israel,  but  in  reality  they  were  themselves  the  true 
descendants  of  Israel,  spiritual  children  of  the  prophets. 


94 

Every  Puritan  felt  and  knew,  that  he  was  the  equal  ot  any 
king  and  better  than  many  a  king,  that  he  wielded  by 
divine  right  the  scepter  of  free-will,  that  he  wore  the  crown 
of  royalty  and  priesthood  by  the  affinity  of  his  soul  to  God, 
that  unlimited  freedom  of  action  was  guaranteed  to  him 
by  the  will  of  the  Omnipotent  King,  that  his  labor  and  the 
fruits  of  it  were  secured  to  him  by  the  immutable  laws  of 
eternal  justice.  Even  before  the  States  had  combined  to 
form  the  United  States,  the  principle  had  been  firmly 
grasped  by  the  descendants  of  the  English  in  America,  and 
had  become  incarnate  in  their  mind  and  laws,  that  every 
man  is  his  own  sovereign,  that  economic  freedom,  or  the 
right  to  act  according  to  one's  own  lawful  interests,  was 
inherent  in  every  individual  by  virtue  of  his  moral 
dignity.  Barely  three  or  four  decades  after  the  American 
Commonwealth  had  been  formed  by  the  free  consent  of  the 
people  composing  it,  the  fruitful  principle  of  the  unlimited 
economic  freedom  of  the  individual  brought  forth  such 
wonders  of  progress  and  produced  such  unheard-of  works 
of  material  civilization,  that  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
Old  World  were  filled  with  amazement,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  adopt  as  much  of  that  principle  as  their 
conditions  and  the  selfishness  of  the  privileged  classes 
would  permit,  in  order  not  to  be  quite  overwhelmed  by  the 
productive  energies  of  the  new  nation. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  mankind  all  the 
powers  of  the  individual  will  and  mind  were  allowed  in 
America  to  unfold  themselves,  to  grow  without  let  or 
hindrance,  and  to  combine  in  the  free  play  of  action  and 
interaction.  Here  the  individual  has  learned  to  know  not 
only  all  his  rights  but  also  all  his  powers;  here  the  indi- 
vidual has  come  to  be  filled  with  unbounded  confidence  in 
himself,  in  the  resources  of  his  mind  and  will.  Here  he 
has  acquired  the  habit  of  relying  on  himself  with  manly 
trustfulness,  and  not  to  look  to  the  providence  of  the  state 
to  show  him  the  way  he  should  go,  and  to  guard  him 


95 

against  the  danger  of  falling  and  hurting  himself.  The 
faculties  of  the  Americans  are  in  a  state  of  tension,  because 
no  prize  of  industry  or  honor  is  beyond  the  reach  of  any 
one  who  displays  the  requisite  energy  and  perseverance. 

What  wonderful  abilities  economic  freedom,  or  freedom 
of  action,  has  developed  in  the  American,  what  quickness 
of  perception,  what  powers  of  adaptation,  what  skill  in 
adjusting  means  to  ends,  what  keenness  in  discerning  the 
heart  of  every  problem,  what  boldness  in  going  at  it  in  the 
straightest  possible  way !  The  unlimited  freedom  of  action 
enjoyed  by  the  individual  has  evolved  in  the  American 
people  an  inventive  genius  which  is  perhaps  the  most 
marvelous  phenomenon  in  modern  civilization.  Thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  inventions  are  made  every  year, 
which  tend  to  multiply  the  productive  powers  of  man,  to 
save  time  and  labor,  to  increase  comfort  and  cheapen  the 
commodities  of  life.  Poor  boys  are  seen  rising  by  the 
magic  of  their  will  under  the  sway  of  personal  freedom,  to 
be  the  owners  of  vast  wealth,  to  rank  among  the  foremost 
statesmen,  to  occupy  the  very  highest  positions  of  public 
honor  and  responsibility,  or  to  be  leaders  in  the  province 
of  science.  The  most  gigantic  works  of  civilization  have 
been  undertaken  and  carried  to  a  successful  issue  by  a  few 
enterprising  persons.  This  continent  has  been  changed 
within  the  space  of  a  hundred  years  from  a  howling 
wilderness  into  the  garden  of  God,  by  the  indomitable  will- 
power and  the  fearless  progressiveness  of  individuals.  The 
quadri-centennial  which  will  be  held  next  year  (1893)  in  the 
metropolis  of  the  West,  will  convey  to  the  inhabitants  of 
this  country,  as  well  as  to  the  Europeans,  some  idea  of  the 
stupendous  growth  of  American  civilization — a  civilization 
due  not  to  the  influence  of  government  playing  at  provi- 
dence and  assuming  the  role  of  guardian  toward  minors, 
but  to  the  creative  free-will  of  individuals,  availing  them- 
selves of  the  methods  and  the  discoveries  of  science,  to 
enlarge  their  dominion  over  nature,  and  make  her  forces 


96 

the  servants  and  helpmates  of  man  the  thinker,  man  the 
free  agent. 

No  less  marvelous  than  the  material  development  of 
America  is  the  work  done  and  the  triumphs  achieved  by 
the  enthusiasm,  the  moral  vigor,  and  the  mental  energy  of 
private  persons  in  the  province  of  education  and  philan- 
thropy. Harvard  University  was  founded  and  has  been 
maintained  and  steadily  perfected  during  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  by  the  voluntary  contributions,  the  self-sacrifice 
and  devotion  of  pious  men  and  women.  Her  younger 
sister,  Yale  College,  owes  her  origin  to  no  royal  grant,  to 
no  state  endowment,  nor  to  the  wisdom  of  a  few  officials, 
but  to  the  efforts  and  free-will  offerings  of  noble  individuals. 
Johns  Hopkins  University  in  Baltimore,  McMicken  Uni- 
versity in  Cincinnati,  and  scores  of  others  were  called  into 
existence  by  the  munificence  of  rich  men  who  regarded 
great  wealth  as  a  sacred  trust,  to  be  administered  in  the 
interests  of  humanity.  And  what  is  true  of  institutions  of 
learning  holds  good  as  to  institutions  of  benevolence. 
Splendidly  equipped  hospitals,  palatial  orphan  asylums, 
homes  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  houses  of  refuge  for  the 
degraded  and  fallen,  are  scattered  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  all  erected  by  the  spontaneous  work 
of  private  charity,  and  all  giving  evidence  of  the  glorious 
blessings  which  the  principle  of  individual  freedom  of 
action  brings  to  birth. 

This  fruitful  American  principle  has  exercised  an 
incalculable  influence  for  good  on  the  world's  civilization. 
It  is  working  as  a  leaven  throughout  Europe,  and  Australia, 
and  even  in  some  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  world 
is  becoming  rapidly  Americanized.  England  has  profited 
most  by  the  lessons  taught,  and  the  example  given,  by 
her  great  daughter.  She  has  become  the  foremost  eco- 
nomic power  of  the  globe,  because  in  some  respects 
she  has  learned  to  be  even  more  American  than  America. 
But  also  the  continental  nations  of  Europe  have  become 


97 

imbued  with  the  progressive  spirit  of  our  country  and  the 
vital  principles  which  animate  it;  they  too  are  adapting 
their  economic  theories  and  methods  to  the  American 
model.  The  Americanization  of  the  Old  World  is  steadily 
going  on  in  spite  of  the  privileged  and  reactionary  classes, 
who  justly  fear  that,  unless  checked,  the  new  force  coming 
from  America  will  overthow  their  thrones  and  trample 
their  privileges  underfoot.  But  they  can  not  stem  the 
irresistible  tide  of  rejuvenating  influences  which  flows  from 
the  western  shore  of  the  Atlantic  to  its  eastern  shore. 
Innumerable  links  connect  the  New  World  with  the  Old 
and  make  them  one  country.  The  Atlantic  has  become  a 
narrow  stream,  bridged  over  by  the  greatest  and  wisest  of 
master-builders,  modern  science.  Countless  ministering 
powers  of  civilization  daily  pass  and  repass  on  that  bridge 
of  the  human  mind,  carrying  hither  and  thither  the  seeds 
of  wonders  and  blessings.  It  is  the  mighty  spiritual  host 
of  a  God  invisible  to  profane  eyes,  but  clearly  discerned, 
with  awe  and  thanksgiving,  by  those  who,  through  com- 
munion with  the  world's  seers,  have  acquired  the  faculty 
of  seeing  things  spiritual. 


98 

IV. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  WOMAN 

The  American  people  has  carried  into  practice  the  lofty 
ideals  which  the  prophets  and  the  poets  of  Israel  cherished 
regarding  woman.  In  some  respects  the  American  practice 
may  be  said  even  to  have  improved  on  the  Hebrew  ideal. 
If  the  American  nation  had  done  nothing  else  for  the 
progress  of  humanity  than  to  have  at  last  redeemed  woman 
from  the  state  of  legal,  social,  and  intellectual  inferiority, 
in  which  she  had  been  kept  from  time  immemorial,  it 
would  be  entitled  to  rank  among  the  great  civilizing 
powers  of  the  earth.  To  have  broken  the  fetters  which 
the  age  of  savagery  had  forged  for  woman,  which  the  age  of 
barbarism  had  riveted  upon  her,  with  which  even  the  most 
advanced  nations  continued  to  enchain  her,  is  a  contribu- 
tion of  immeasureable  value  made  by  America  towards 
the  world's  civilization.  The  moral,  mental,  social,  and 
legal  emancipation  of  woman,  in  a  sense  has-  doubled  the 
working  forces  of  civilization.  Before  all  the  faculties  of 
woman  were  liberated  by  the  American  people  from  the 
narrowing  and  crippling  restraints  imposed  upon  her  by 
inherited  savage  customs  and  barbarous  ideas,  only  one- 
half  the  human  race,  the  male  half,  was  given  full 
opportunity  to  develop  all  the  powers  of  heart  and  mind ; 
only  one-half  was  allowed  to  engage  in  the  higher 
pursuits  of  life,  to  be  standard-bearers  of  the  world's 
accumulated  knowledge,  producers  of  new  thought,  repre- 
sentatives of  creative  art,  master-builders  of  the  temple  of 
humanity.  From  the  beginning  of  man's  career  on  earth 
till  about  one  hundred  years  ago  a  fatal  madness  seemed  to 
possess  all  the  tribes  of  men,  which  caused  them  to  confine 
one-half  of  all  human  beings  to  the  duties  and  works  of 
the  household.  The  blundering  stupidity  and  the  heartless 


99 

cruelty  of  man,  as  he  came  forth  from  the  hands  of  nature, 
as  he  was  molded  by  the  brutal  forces  of  savagery,  and  as 
he  was  hardened  by  the  cruel  usages  and  debasing  ideas  of 
barbarism,  show  themselves,  in  all  their  native  hideousness, 
in  the  degrading  treatment  which  woman,  the  fairest  and 
gentlest  of  creation's  children,  received  at  the  hands  of  the 
stronger  sex  in  nearly  all  lands  and  times. 

The  story  of  woman's  wrongs,  of  her  unrequited  excess- 
ive toil,  of  the  indescribable  physical  and  moral  abuse  of 
which  she  was  a  victim,  of  her  enforced  ignorance,  the 
blighting  contempt  in  which  she  was  held,  forms  a  chapter 
of  shame  and  iniquity  in  the  annals  of  mankind.     "By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them" — and  we  ought  to  judge 
the  tree  of  past  humanity  by  the  bitter  fruits  of  misery  and 
degradation  which  it  bore  to  womankind.     To  the  savage 
ancestors  of  the  modern  nations  woman  was  what  she  is  to 
the  savage  Indian  and  Australian  of  today,  a  mere  beast  of 
burden,  who  was  bought  like  any  other  chattel  from  her 
owner,  her  father,  who  was  abused  in  every  way,  cruelly 
beaten,  often  starved,  and  not  seldom  killed  by  the  enraged 
man-animal.     To  the  barbarian,  woman  was  and  is  a  slave, 
or  a  plaything,  which  he  throws  away  after  it  has  become 
old  and  worn,  and  lost  its  charms  for  him.     Even  after 
civilization  had  advanced  in  other  respects,  women   con- 
tinued to  be  held  in  subjection  and  contempt.    The  women 
of  Greece  passed  their  lives  in  seclusion  and  ignorance. 
The  Roman    matron  was  the  property  of  her  husband. 
With  her  children,  together  with  the  slaves,  she  formed 
the  family,  which  was   under  the  absolute  sway  of  the 
paterfamilias.     He  could  kill  his  wife  as  well  as  his  chil- 
dren with  impunity.     German  writers  have  long  fabled 
about  the  high  position  occupied  by  women  among  the 
ancient  Germans.     But  impartial   historical   research  has 
proved  this  assertion  to  have  no  foundation  in  fact.     The 
weakness  of  ancient  civilization  lay  mainly  in  the  fact, 
that  not  only  did  half  of  the  population  of  a  country,  and 


IOO 


in  some  regions  even  a  greater  proportion  of  it,  consist  of 
slaves,  but  that  of  the  free-born  people  one-half  again,  the 
women,  virtually  lived  in  a  state  of  domestic  servitude. 
Thus,  their  intellectual  powers  became  dwarfed  through 
the  total  absence  of  education.  Their  moral  sensibilities 
and  faculties  became  sadly  stunted,  because  they  did  not 
breathe  the  bracing  air  of  personal  freedom,  because  they 
lacked  the  sustaining  and  uplifting  forces  of  self-respect, 
and  the  invigorating  influences  derived  from  the  world's 
esteem.  Even  a  Plato  and  an  Aristotle,  not  to  speak  of  a 
host  of  Latin  and  other  Greek  writers,  expatiate  like  Hin- 
doo and  Chinese  authors  on  the  moral  obliquity  of  women. 

Wherever  and  whenever,  therefore,  the  iron  rules  and 
restraints  within  which  woman  was  held  imprisoned,  came 
to  be  loosened  through  the  co-operation  of  internal  and 
external  causes,  it  did  not  result  in  the  flowering  of  her 
mental  powers,  nor  in  an  ennobling  and  strengthening  of 
her  character.  On  the  contrary,  there  ensued  a  frightful 
state  of  general  licentiousness.  All  the  barriers  of  old 
broke  down,  there  being  no  restraining  ethical  forces  in 
the  national  religion.  There  opened  a  yawning  abyss  of 
demoralization  which  swallowed  the  nation,  and  all  the 
glory  and  pride  of  its  civilization,  its  statues  and  paintings, 
its  poetry  and  philosophy.  Thus  were  woman's  wrongs 
avenged  by  the  inexorable  nemesis  of  history.  The  life 
of  paganism  was  vile  in  almost  all  moral  respects,  but 
vilest  of  all  it  proved  to  be  in  its  treatment  of  woman.  By 
degrading  woman,  heathenism  poisoned  the  well-spring  of 
life,  the  very  fountain,  drinking  from  whose  holy  waters 
man  was  perennially  to  renew  his  youth. 

The  seers  of  Yahve  saw  the  root  of  the  world's  evils  in 
the  demoralizing  beliefs  and  practices  of  paganism.  They 
were  not  content  to  lop  off  here  a  branch  and  there  a  limb 
of  the  upas-tree ;  they  laid  the  axe  to  the  roots  of  it,  to  the 
baneful  heathen  theory  of  nature  and  man,  of  God  and  the 
soul.  The  prophets  of  Israel  proclaimed  a  new  theory  of 


101 

nature  and  man,  of  God  and  the  soul.  This  theory,  once 
embodied  in  habits  and  institutions,  is  bound  to  save 
mankind  from  a  returning  deluge  of  destruction  by  immoral 
forces,  and  to  redeem  woman  from  the  curse  inherited  from 
savage  ancestors  and  barbarous  times.  They  taught  the 
unity  of  all  life  in  God,  the  sacredness  of  all  life,  because 
it  flows  from  the  holy  fountain  of  His  creative  being. 
They  brought  the  message  to  mankind,  that  all  men, 
without  distinction  of  race  or  sex,  were  children  of  their 
Heavenly  Father;  that  woman  was  made  no  less  than  man 
in  the  spiritual  image  of  His  will,  and  fashioned  in  the 
likeness  of  His  wisdom  and  love.  In  the  image  of  God  He 
made  them  both ;  man  and  woman  He  created  them. 
Having  a  godlike  nature  like  man,  woman  possesses  like 
him  an  infinite  moral  dignity.  She  too  is  but  little  less  than 
a  god.  The  free  development  of  her  reason,  the  untram- 
rneled  use  of  her  free-will,  the  cultivation  of  her  mental 
powers,  the  unfolding  of  all  the  moral  wealth  of  her  soul, 
is  an  inalienable  right  inherent  in  her  by  the  grace  of  her 
God-descended  humanity,  by  virtue  of  her  indestructible 
ethical  personality.  The  absolute  equality  of  woman  with 
man  is  contained  clearly  in  the  cardinal  conception  of  the 
great  revolutionary  heroes  of  humanity,  the  prophets  of 
Israel.  Nor  did  their  ideals  concerning  woman  remain 
barren  theories  in  the  minds  of  the  worshipers  of  Yahve. 
Women  are  recorded  to  have  been  judges  and  prophetesses; 
the  spirit  of  God  was  believed  to  inspire  them;  they  spake 
with  the  voice  of  authority  to  the  people  and  the  rulers. 
This  fact  goes  far  to  prove  that  woman  was  held  in  high 
regard  in  Israel,  that  she  occupied  a  position  of  dignity 
and  influence,  high  above  that  assigned  to  her  even  by  the 
most  civilized  pagan  nations. 

Yet,  though  the  position  of  woman  in  Israel  was  higher, 
though  her  lot  was  happier  than  among  the  other  ancient 
nations,  the  Hebrew  practice  and  common  law  with  regard 
to  her  were  far  from  keeping  pace  with  the  Hebrew  ideal. 


102 

There  were  too  many  ineradicable  habits  of  thought  and 
feeling,  too  many  old  institutions,  such  as  polygamy, 
which  held  on  tenaciously  to  life,  refusing  to  give  way  to 
the  revolutionary  ideas  and  ideals,  with  which  they  formed 
so  glaring  a  contrast.  Great  reformatory  ideas  rarely 
succeed  in  becoming  fully  realized  in  the  land  where  they 
first  make  their  appearance.  Thus,  the  ideas  and  ideals 
which,  after  thousands  of  years,  were  to  embody  themselves 
and  celebrate  their  greatest  triumph  in  America,  went  forth 
from  Zion,  and  migrated  from  people  to  people  and  from 
age  to  age,  pleading  as  with  angels'  tongues  in  the  name 
of  God  and  humanity  for  the  dignity,  the  intellectual  ele- 
vation, the  social  equality  of  woman.  But  the  hardness 
of  man's  heart,  the  coarse  selfishness  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  universal  oppression  of  the  weak,  the  brutal  spirit  of 
militarism,  the  belief  that  physical  strength  and  physical 
courage  constituted  the  highest  virtue,  offered  the  most 
stubborn  resistance  to  any  attempts  at  innovation  in  this 
direction,  and  caused  people  to  listen  with  a  contemptuous 
smile  to  the  pleadings  made  on  behalf  of  woman.  The 
so-called  Age  of  Chivalry  contributed  nothing  toward  the 
amelioration  of  her  condition  and  the  uplifting  of  her  life. 
It  merely  put  an  artificial  and  illusive  paint  on  the  face  of 
the  prevailing  barbarism.  It  produced  a  large  number  of 
love-songs,  in  which  an  unnatural  and  exaggerated  homage 
was  paid  to  woman's  beauty,  but  it  effected  no  moral  or 
social  good;  on  the  contrary,  it  resulted  in  a  disgraceful 
corruption  of  morals.  The  age  of  rationalism  or  enlighten- 
ment in  Europe  brought  partial  relief  and  some  gleams  of 
light  to  the  women  of  the  higher  classes,  but  the  great 
mass  of  womankind  in  the  Old  World  to  this  day  have 
continued  to  live  in  a  state  of  social  and  mental  inferiority. 
You  can  still  see  in  the  streets  of  Dutch  and  Belgian  cities, 
and  in  other  countries,  a  woman  harnessed  to  a  cart, 
together  with  a  dog;  you  can  still  see  in  parts  of  Germany 
and  Austria,  and  other  civilized  lands,  a  woman  hitched, 


103 

together  with  a  bullock,  to  a  plow,  behind  which  the 
husband  is  walking.  The  American  who  passes  some  time 
in  Austria  observes,  with  a  sense  of  horror,  the  women 
carrying  a  heavy  load  of  brick  on  their  shoulders,  with 
which  they  climb  up  on  ladders  to  the  second  and  third 
stories  of  buildings.  The  European  peasant  does  not  hold 
his  wife  in  much  higher  esteem  than  does  the  Indian 
savage.  To  lose  his  cattle  will  break  his  heart,  but  he 
readily  consoles  himself  for  the  loss  of  his  wife.  It  was 
reserved  for  the  American  people  to  bring  about  the 
redemption  of  woman  from  the  curse  of  ages,  from  the 
yoke  which  paganism  and  barbarism  had  put  on  her  neck. 
The  scarcity  of  women  in  America  till  about  a  genera- 
tion ago,  has  done  something  to  effect  this  greatest  social 
revolution.  But  it  has  done  far  less  than  is  usually 
ascribed  to  it  by  European  observers.  The  rather  the 
credit  is  due  to  the  great  principle  which  animates  and 
vitalizes  the*  American  commonwealth.  It  is  the  intensely 
realized  idea  of  an  infinite  moral  dignity  inherent  in  every 
human  soul;  it  is  the  belief  that  every  human  being 
possesses,  by  the  grace  of  its  godlike  nature,  the  right  and 
the  duty  to  develop  all  its  powers,  and  to  use  them  for  the 
attainment  of  happiness.  It  is  the  conviction,  firmly 
rooted  in  the  heart  of  the  whole  people,  that  personal  free- 
dom of  action  is  vouchsafed  to  every  individual  by  the 
eternal  laws  of  justice.  It  is  these  cardinal  conceptions 
that  have  delivered  woman  in  America  from  the  state  of 
social  and  mental  inferiority,  in  which  she  had  been  kept 
through  countless  ages ;  it  is  these  that  at  last  have  placed 
her  on  a  level  with  man,  and  opened  to  her  all  the  avenues 
of  human  activity.  With  that  fearless  consistency  in 
carrying  right  principles  to  their  best  practical  conclu- 
sions, which  characterizes  the  American,  he  said  to  him- 
self: "Has  not  woman  an  immortal  soul  like  man?  Is 
she  not  crowned  with  the  attributes  of  reason  and  free- 
will like  man?  Is  she  not  a  child  of  God,  an  image  of 


the  Most  High,  like  man?  Shall  we  regard  her  as  belong- 
ing to  a  lower  kind  of  humanity?  Shall  we  believe  our 
mothers,  to  whom  we  owe  the  noblest  qualities  of  our 
being,  inferior  to  their  sons?  Shall  we  deem  the  partners  of 
our  lives,  whose  love  blesses  us,  whose  purity  ennobles  us, 
whose  devotion  is  our  shield  and  buckler,  whose  strength 
of  will  upholds  us  in  days  of  darkness,  shall  we  think  them 
undeserving  of  equal  rights  and  equal  privileges  with  us? 
Shall  our  daughters,  whose  loveliness  is  the  light  of  our 
eyes,  whose  sweetness  is  the  joy  of  our  life,  whose  angelic 
affection  is  the  solace  of  our  days,  shall  they  not  be  allowed 
to  penetrate  the  innermost  chambers  of  the  sanctuary 
of  knowledge,  and  to  fall  heirs  to  the  world's  wisdom? 
Shall  women,  to  whom  we  owe  the  best  part  of  our  spiritual 
and  moral  life,  be  forced  to  observe  silence  concerning  mat- 
ters of  high  spiritual  and  ethical  import?"  The  genius 
of  the  American  people  has  cried  aloud,  and  its  voice  is 
still  reverberating  from  one  end  of  the  civilized  earth  to 
the  other:  "Make  a  highway  for  woman,  remove  every 
obstacle  from  her  path,  let  every  mountain  of  inequality 
and  injustice  be  made  level,  let  every  valley  of  ignorance 
and  prejudice  be  raised.  Let  her  move  on  with  man  to 
ever  nobler  ends.  Let  her,  in  loving  harmony  with  him, 
work  out  the  salvation  of  the  race  ;  let  her  gather  knowl- 
edge and  with  the  arrows  of  her  light  chase  darkness  from 
the  earth,  let  her  help  to  uproot  evil  and  plant  social  right 
and  truth.  Let  her,  too,  grapple  with  the  great  problems 
of  humanity,  and  with  her  love  and  wisdom  aid  in  giving 
them  a  peaceful  solution.  Let  all  her  powers  grow  and 
expand,  and  be  added  to  the  working  forces  of  civilization. 
Let  a  crown  of  honor  be  placed  on  her  head,  let  her  be 
clothed  with  the  royal  garments  of  virtue  and  be  girt  with 
the  magic  girdle  of  loving-kindness  and  grace." 

The  American  woman  has  become  the  highest  repre- 
sentative of  womanhood.  She  has  been  placed  on  the 
very  pinnacle  of  social  honor.  The  American  people  have 


surrounded  her  person  with  the  safeguards  of  universal 
esteem.  Woe  betide  the  man  who  should  insult  the 
dignity  of  woman  or  offend  her  ear  with  the  breath  of 
impurity !  The  consciousness  of  being  the  queen  of  social 
honor  has  given  to  the  American  woman  a  dignity  of 
bearing,  a  graciousness  of  demeanor,  a  noble  spirit  of  self- 
possession  and  self-respect,  such  as  in  the  Old  World  is  to 
be  observed  only  in  the  women  of  the  highest  ranks. 
There  is  a  spirit  of  self-reliance  in  the  American  woman, 
a  capacity  for  self-help,  a  firmness  of  purpose,  a  grasp  of 
the  practical  affairs  of  life,  which  make  her  contrast  so 
strangely  and  advantageously  with  the  shrinking,  timid, 
and  helpless  women  of  the  Old  World.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  in  the  American  woman  an  idealism,  a  deep 
religious  sense,  an  almost  mystic  yearning  after  spiritual 
illumination,  an  aspiration  after  the  higher  attainments,  an 
ambition  to  be  abreast  with  the  culture  of  the  time  and  in 
close  touch  with  the  best  thought  of  all  ages.  Along  with 
these  qualities  there  goes  a  keen  and  helpful  sympathy 
with  human  suffering,  a  sense  of  horror  and  of  responsi- 
bility at  the  sight  of  physical  deterioration,  of  mental 
deformity,  and  moral  degradation,  a  sleepless  desire  to 
leave  the  world  better,  wiser,  and  happier  than  she  found 
it.  Such  is  the  character  of  the  American  woman,  as  it 
has  been  formed  by  the  American  people,  or  rather  as  it  has 
been  molded  by  the  great  principles  which  are  the  soul  of 
the  American  Commonwealth.  Of  all  the  members  of 
society  she  has  reaped  the  largest  harvest  of  benefits,  since 
this  continent  has  been  changed  from  a  habitation  of 
howling  savages  into  the  seat  of  the  most  progressive 
civilization. 

Yet  is  woman  no  idle  beneficiary,  no  mere  pensioner,  of 
the  American  people.  Much  as  America  has  done  for  her, 
she  has  done  and  is  doing  as  much,  and  perhaps  more,  for 
America.  She  is  enriching,  ennobling,  and  spiritualizing 
the  life  of  the  American  nation.  America  is  called  by 


io6 

Europeans  the  land  of  a  rarely  material  civilization.  We 
are  accused  of  being  steeped  in  materialism.  It  is  said  of 
us  that  we  worship  no  other  god  than  the  Almighty  Dollar. 
That  we  are  able  to  refute  these  reproaches  as  utterly 
baseless,  is  mainly  due  to  the  ideal  forces  which  peren- 
nially issue  from  the  soul  of  the  American  woman,  and 
give  our  national  and  individual  life  a  higher  meaning  and 
purpose.  While  a  ceaseless  battle  is  being  waged  by  the 
men  for  the  possession  of  material  wealth,  woman  keeps 
watch  over  the  holy  ark  of  the  ideal,  and  ministers  as 
priestess  in  the  sanctuary  of  God-seeking  humanity.  It  is 
she  that  upholds  and  upbuilds  the  temple  of  religion  in 
this  country.  The  wholesome  and  growing  religious  life 
of  the  nation  derives  its  vital  powers  from  the  enthusiasm, 
devotion,  and  self-sacrificing  activity  of  woman.  She  is 
the  chief  agent  in  inaugurating,  preserving,  and  improv- 
ing the  institutions  of  philanthropy  in  this  country.  She 
organizes  and  carries  on  most  of  the  works  of  charity, 
which  alleviate  the  misery  of  countless  thousands,  and 
save  innumerable  persons  from  physical  and  moral  per- 
dition. Two-thirds  of  the  charities  of  our  land  would 
languish  and  die,  were  she  to  refuse  to  lend  them  her 
energy,  time,  and  influence.  The  American  woman  looks 
upon  herself  as  the  chosen  adversary  of  evil,  and  fights  it 
with  all  her  characteristic  bravery  and  tenacity  of  purpose. 
She  has  declared  war  upon  intemperance,  and  will  yet  root 
it  out  of  the  land.  The  women  of  America  are  found 
among  the  foremost  champions  of  social  justice  and  politi- 
cal purity.  Two  great  reforms,  which  recently  took  place 
in  the  administration  of  New  York,  were  effected  solely  by 
the  moral  courage,  the  unconquerable  persistence,  and  the 
irresistible  eloquence  of  a  noble  woman.  Let  the  cause  of 
humanity,  in  whatever  guise,  cry  out  for  defenders,  and 
you  will  see  women  fighting  in  the  front  ranks  and  bearing 
the  brunt  of  the  battle. 

The   American   people   is   being   richly  rewarded  for 
having  opened  all  the  avenues  of  knowledge  to  women,  by 


placing  them  on  a  footing  of  absolute  equality  with  men 
as  regards  education.  The  arduous  and  unremunerative 
work  of  educating  the  young,  is  almost  exclusively  carried 
on  by  women  in  our  public  schools.  The  kindness  and 
generosity  of  the  American  character  are  largely  to  be  traced 
back  to  the  softening  and  humanizing  influence  exercised 
by  the  female  teachers  on  the  plastic  minds  and  the 
impressionable  heart  of  the  young.  The  general  high 
culture  of  the  American  women  acts  as  a  constant  stimu- 
lative and  leavening  force  on  the  minds  of  men.  The 
unbounded  esteem  in  which  they  are  held  reacts  most 
beneficially  on  the  behavior  of  the  male  population. 
Their  presence  curbs  rudeness  and  represses  vulgarity. 
The  feelings  and  the  manners  of  the  Americans  are  becom- 
ing in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  ever  more  feminine, 
gentle,  generous,  pure,  and  sweet.  Such  are  the  ethical, 
educational,  and  intellectual  services  which  woman  is 
rendering  the  American  people,  in  return  for  the  redemp- 
tion wrought  for  her.  No  eye  can  foresee  the  wonders 
and  the  blessings  which  the  moral  superiority  of  her  char- 
acter, her  religious  enthusiasm,  her  intense  hatred  of  evil, 
her  fervid  love  of  good,  will  bring  forth  in  the  future. 
Incalculable  are  the  influences  which  the  example  and 
the  exalted  position  of  the  American  women  are  exerting 
on  the  life  of  women  in  the  Old  World.  The  American 
woman  is  the  coming  type  of  womanhood  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  It  is  her  manifest  destiny  to  reform  all 
womankind  in  her  own  image  and  after  her  likeness.* 


*This  series  comprised  three  other  discourses,  on  "  Popular  Govern- 
ment," which,  however,  it  has  been  impossible  to  include  in  this  volume. 


"WHO  IS  THE  REAL  ATHEIST? 


>T~MME  was — and  that  time  does  not  by  any  means  belong 
•*•  to  a  remote  past — when  atheism  was  regarded  as  the 
most  heinous  crime  of  which  a  human  being  could  render 
himself  guilty.  To  be  accused  of  atheism  meant  to  be 
dragged  before  the  tribunal  of  the  state,  as  was  done  in 
the  days  of  antiquity,  or  before  the  bar  of  an  ecclesiastical 
court,  as  was  the  practice  during  the  Middle  Ages  and  for 
nearly  two  centuries  after  the  Reformation,  there  to  be 
arraigned  as  the  worst  of  criminals,  compared  with  whom 
even  a  murderer  seemed  to  be  an  angel  of  innocence.  If 
convicted,  and  an  atheist  was  rarely  acquitted,  he  was 
condemned  to  die  a  felon's  death.  The  curses  of  the  com- 
munity followed  him  to  the  place  of  execution.  No 
tombstone  was  allowed  to  mark  his  resting-place.  One 
suspected  of  atheism  was  shunned  like  a  leper,  and  hated 
as  if  he  were  a  fiend  incarnate.  Yet  how  many  glorious 
champions  of  truth,  how  many  path-finders  of  humanity, 
how  many  saints  of  the  earth,  whose  noble  lives  were  the 
best  indications  of  the  belief  in  a  God  of  holiness,  have 
been  persecuted  with  merciless  fanaticism  as  atheists,  as 
the  worst  enemies  of  the  human  race ! 

The  Greek  philosopher  Anaxagoras,  who  taught  the 
profoundest  of  all  religious  doctrines,  that  the  universe 
was  shaped  into  purposeful  harmony  by  an  All-wise  and 
Almighty  Mind,  being  accused  of  atheism  was  thrown 
into  prison,  from  which  he  secretly  escaped  and  then 
fled  from  Athens  in  hot  haste.  Even  his  powerful 
friend  Pericles  could  not  protect  him  against  the  suspicion 
and  the  hatred  of  the  masses.  Socrates,  the  wisest  and 
most  pious  of  all  Greeks,  whose  philosophy  marks  an 


109 

epoch  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  and  whose 
life  came  to  be  to  the  Hellenic  world  what  that  of 
Jesus  is  to  Christendom,  was  condemned  by  an  Athenian 
jury  as  an  atheist,  and  in  his  seventieth  year  com- 
pelled to  drink  the  cup  of  deadly  hemlock.  Giordano 
Bruno,  on  the  iyth  of  February,  1600,  was  burned 
in  Rome  as  an  enemy  of  God.  And  yet  that  reputed 
atheist  taught  that  God  is  the  unity  of  the  universe, 
the  universal  substance,  the  one  and  only  principle, 
the  efficient  and  final  cause  of  all,  the  beginning,  middle, 
and  end,  eternal  and  infinite.  Spinoza,  whom  Schleier- 
macher  called  "a  God-intoxicated  man,"  he  who  ascribed 
real  existence  to  God  alone,  declaring  all  finite  beings  to 
be  mere  manifestations  of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute,  was 
not  only  excommunicated  by  his  own  co-religionists,  but 
was  until  recent  times  universally  regarded  with  horror 
and  hatred  as  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  of  atheists. 
The  Jews  were  loathed  by  the  pagans  as  a  people  that 
believed  in  no  God.  So  utterly  fallible  and  so  baneful  in 
its  effects  has  the  world's  judgment  in  all  times  and  among 
all  nations  proved  to  be,  as  regards  atheists  and  atheism. 
As  a  rule  the  so-called  atheists  of  one  age  become  the 
venerated  religious  teachers  and  spiritual  guides  of  after 
ages.  Those  that  perished  amid  the  execrations  of  their 
generation  came  to  live  transfigured  in  the  mind  and  heart 
of  later  generations  as  types  of  an  ideal  humanity. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  no  original  thinker,  no 
genuine  seeker  after  truth,  has  ever  been  a  real  atheist. 
The  alleged  atheists  simply  differed  more  or  less  pro- 
foundly from  the  theology  of  those  who  passed  judgment 
upon  them.  The  Greek  philosophers  who  were  indicted 
on  a  charge  of  atheism,  did  not  believe  in  the  Olympian 
gods,  holding  as  they  did  monotheistic  views.  The  Jews 
were  hated  by  the  heathen  world  as  atheists,  for  the  reason 
that  they  denied  the  existence  of  the  gods  of  the  Gentiles. 
Similarly,  the  men  that  were  hunted  down  and  brought 


no 

to  an  untimely  end  as  atheists  in  Christian  lands,  only 
rejected  certain  dogmas,  held  by  the  established  churches 
to  be  essential  principles  of  faith,  without  which  it  was 
believed  religion  would  be  destroyed. 

Again,  most  scientists  are  reproached  by  over-zealous 
theologians  with  being  atheists  and  teaching  atheism. 
"You  teach  an  atheistic  science,"  they  cry.  "You  leave 
God  out  of  your  astronomy,  your  geology,  chemistry, 
botany,  zoology,  and  physiology.  No  mention  is  ever 
made  in  any  of  your  writings  of  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth."  Only  blundering  stupidity,  going  hand  in  hand 
with  blind  intolerance^  can  speak  thus.  It  is  not  within 
the  province  of  science  to  teach  religion  or  metaphysics,  to 
prove  the  facts  of  experience  by  referring  them  to  the 
highest  and  last  cause,  to  trace  all  phenomena  back  to  the 
ultimate  ground  of  existence.  There  is  certainly  no 
religious  mathematics,  there  is  no  room  for  God  in  a  treatise 
on  geometry.  The  engineer  who  elaborated  his  plan  for 
the  Brooklyn  bridge,  was  not  expected  to  start  with  the 
premise,  that  all  the  physical  laws  on  which  he  based 
his  calculations,  measurements,  and  adjustments,  were 
perennial  manifestations  of  an  infinite,  eternal,  and  immu- 
table power,  that  we  worship  as  God. 

It  is  the  sole  office  of  the  investigator  of  nature  to 
ascertain  by  conscientious  observation  and  careful  experi- 
ments all  the  knowable  facts  within  the  range  of  his 
experience,  to  arrange  them  in  the  order  of  their  closer  or 
remoter  relationship,  to  find  the  bond  of  union  which  binds 
them  all  together  into  a  systematic  whole,  to  discover  the 
laws,  according  to  which  they  live,  move,  and  have  their 
being.  It  is  the  function  of  science  to  drive  the  notion  of 
accident  and  caprice  from  her  entire  territory,  to  show 
every  physical  event  as  flowing  of  necessity  from  a  preced- 
ing physical  event  as  its  cause,  to  demonstrate  that  no 
phenomenon  in  nature  stands  apart  for  itself,  but  forms  a 
necessary  part  of  the  whole  order "  of  the  universe,  to 


Ill 

connect  by  a  chain  of  cause  and  effect  whatever  is  or  hap- 
pens in  the  present  with  the  remotest  possible  past  of  the 
heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath  or  the  waters  under 
the  earth.  Science  is  neither  theistic  nor  atheistic.  It  is 
as  little  religious  or  irreligious  as  cooking,  building,  sew- 
ing, or  plowing.  It  deals  only  with  what  is  within  the 
ken  of  the  senses,  and  its  boldest  conclusions  and  theories 
in  the  last  resort  go  back  to  what  the  senses  bear  testimony 
to.  Science  proper  has  nothing  to  do  with  what  is  super- 
sensual  or  beyond  the  reach  of  the  senses.  It  does  not 
meddle  with  questions  relating  to  the  origin  of  things,  nor 
does  it  extend  its  inquiry  to  the  ultimate  ground  of  all 
being.  It  is  exactly  where  science  ends  that  philosophy 
begins.  The  subject  matter  of  philosophy  is  the  infinite 
and  absolute,  the  eternal  ground  of  all  existence,  the 
inscrutable  power  behind  all  phenomena,  the  cause  of  all 
causes,  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  all  exis- 
tence, that  which  alone  is,  was,  and  forever  will  be.  The 
existence  of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute  is  to  all  systems 
of  philosophy  the  highest  and  most  certain  of  all  truths. 

The  idea  of  the  Eternal  is  incomparably  more  incon- 
trovertible than  the  several  finite  things  which  we  may 
touch,  taste,  or  smell.  The  Infinite  is  to  philosophy  the 
only  true  reality,  while  the  finite  is  regarded  by  it  as 
enigmatic,  doubtful.  And  shall  we  decry  these  supreme 
philosophical  ideas  as  rank  atheism,  because  the  philoso- 
phers prefer  to  call  the  eternal  source  and  cause  of  alj 
existence  the  Infinite  and  Absolute,  instead  of  calling  it  by 
the  name  of  God?  The  Hebrew  name  Yahve,  He  that  is, 
was,  and  will  be,  He  that  causes  all  being,  corresponds 
exactly  to  the  philosophic  term  of  Infinite  and  Absolute. 
The  philosophy  of  Spinoza,  the  best  hated  and  calumniated 
of  all  reputed  atheists,  ought  to  be  called,  according  to 
Hegel,  Acosmism,  the  doctrine  of  the  nothingness  of  the 
world,  while  reality  is  ascribed  to  God  or  the  Infinite  alone. 
What  is  true  of  Spinoza  holds  good  of  all  philosophers, 


112 

from  Thales  down  to  Herbert  Spencer.  None  of  them  was 
an  atheist,  popular  prejudice  and  priestly  fanaticism  not- 
withstanding. 

"But  have  not  your  philosophers,"  some  of  you  might 
ask,  "asserted  over  and  over  again,  that  we  can  not  prove 
the  existence  of  God?  Has  not  your  master  Kant  used 
the  gigantic  powers  of  his  mind,  to  demolish,  one  after 
another,  all  the  time-honored  proofs  of  the  existence  of 
God?"  It  is  not  in  wisdom  that  you  ask  thus.  It  is 
because  Kant  and  other  thinkers  of  equal  originality 
stood  like  Moses  face  to  face  with  the  Eternal  and  Infinite, 
that  they  wished  to  show  that  all  theistic  arguments  are 
either  untenable  or  insufficient.  How  can  we  prove  that 
which  is  itself  the  proof  of  everything  else,  upon  which  all 
other  truths  hang,  without  which  all  knowledge  would  be 
vanity  and  a  striving  after  wind?  To  prove  means  to  trace 
back  what  is  uncertain  and  doubtful  to  what  is  certain  and 
beyond  a  doubt,  to  explain  the  unknown  by  referring  it 
back  to  what  is  known,  by  showing  it  to  be  akin  to  what 
is  recognized  and  understood.  But  this  process  of  proving 
must  at  last  reach  a  limit.  We  must  finally  arrive  at 
something,  a  proposition  or  cognition,  which  we  can  not 
demonstrate,  because  there  is  nothing  beyond  it,  in  which 
it  might  be  included  or  to  which  it  might  be  linked.  It 
is  the  supreme  truth,  the  most  certain  and  immediate  of 
all  cognitions,  it  is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  other 
verities  rest,  and  without  the  recognition  of  which  all  truth 
vanishes.  It  can  neither  be  proved  nor  does  it  require  proof. 
"The  idea  of  God  or  the  Infinite  is  this  most  general 
truth,  which  can  not  be  reduced  to  a  more  general  one.  It 
is  the  deepest  truth  to  which  we  can  get.  It  can  not  be 
explained,  it  is  inexplicable,  unaccountable." 

But  what  of  materialism,  is  it  not  atheism?  Are  there 
not  philosophers  who  derive  all  life  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  from  matter  and  motion,  and  deny  the  existence  of 
mind  or  anything  akin  to  mind  in  the  universe?  My 


"3 

answer  is,  no  serious  thinker  in  our  days  holds  such  views. 
Materialism  has  been  refuted  and  exploded  as  a  theory  of 
the  universe.  It  does  not  account  for  the  existence  of  mind 
in  man  and  animals.  How  can  mind,  which  is  absolutely 
different  from  matter  and  motion,  be  the  offspring  of 
matter  or  the  child  of  motion?  We  can  by  no  effort  of 
thought  conceive  how  matter  and  motion  could  be  changed 
from  what  they  are  and  be  transformed  into  consciousness. 
It  is  simply  unthinkable.  And  if  all  matter  is  believed  to 
have  an  inner  side  to  it,  to  be  endowed  with  the  qualities 
of  feeling  and  the  dim  germs  of  thought,  then  it  is  no 
longer  matter,  but  something  else,  something  higher. 
From  whichever  point  of  view  we  look  at  it,  philosophical 
atheism  turns  out  to  be  a  mere  fiction,  a  mere  delusion  of 
theological  zealots. 

But  who  are  the  real  atheists?  They  whose  conduct 
belies  their  belief  in  the  existence  of  God,  whose  life  forms 
a  glaring  contrast  to  the  idea  of  God.  The  belief  in  a  God 
is  not  simply  the  highest  and  most  certain  of  all  truths,  it  is 
also  the  greatest  and  most  potent  moral  idea.  The  idea  of 
God  implies  the  idea  of  divine  perfection  and  absolute  good- 
ness. God  and  goodness  are  synonymous,  interchangeable 
terms.  If  we  believed  that  God  was  not  goodness,  we 
might  fear  Him,  but  we  could  not  adore  Him.  A  good 
man  would  appear  to  us  more  worshipful  than  He.  Relig- 
ion and  philosophy  agree  in  holding  that  morality  is  the 
highest  manifestation  of  the  Infinite  in  and  through  the 
soul  of  man.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  its  origin  and 
development,  as  it  is,  it  doubtless  is  the  most  glorious 
incarnation  of  the  inscrutable  Power,  of  the  Universal  Self. 
To  believe  in  God  does  not  mean  that  we  simply  allow  that 
He  exists,  it  means  that  we  strive  to  walk  in  the  luminous 
footsteps  of  His  holiness,  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  His 
justice,  truth,  and  mercy.  Every  virtuous  action  is  a  true 
act  of  worship.  To  curb  our  passions  in  obedience  to  the 
laws  divine  engraved  upon  the  tablet  of  our  hearts  is  the 


grandest  homage  paid  to  the  idea  of  God.  To  smite  and 
overthrow  the  vaulting  instincts  of  selfishness,  in  order  to 
serve  the  common  good  of  all,  is  the  strongest  proof  that  a 
God  of  goodness  inspires  the  breast  of  man.  He  is  an 
atheist  who  professes  to  believe  in  God  but  whose  deeds 
put  his  faith  to  shame.  He  who  declares  that  he  considers 
the  Ten  Commandments  a  revelation  of  God  and  yet 
violates  one  and  all,  he  is  the  real  atheist.  He  who 
acknowledges  that  we  should  recognize  no  other  God 
beside  the  Eternal,  and  yet  worships  his  own  poor  self  as 
the  highest  being  and  places  his  own  interests  and  pleas- 
ures above  the  highest  interests  and  aims  of  humanity,  he 
is  a  real  atheist.  He  who  perjures  himself,  who  swears  a 
false  oath  or  utters  lies  to  obtain  profit  or  gain  favor,  he 
does  practically  deny  God,  he  demonstrates  that  he  does 
not  believe  in  Him  "that  will  not  let  him  go  unpunished 
that  taketh  His  name  in  vain."  Whoever  fails  to  honor 
his  father  and  mother  as  the  representatives  of  God  on 
earth,  whoever  in  heartless  selfishness  neglects  his  aged 
parents  and  refuses  to  surround  their  declining  years  with 
blessings  and  comforts,  he  is  an  atheist,  though  he  daily 
bend  his  knee  in  adoration  to  God  and  sound  His  praises 
in  the  midst  of  the  assembly.  He  that  makes  of  himself  a 
slave  of  Mammon,  who,  in  his  greed  to  amass  wealth,  lets 
the  higher  powers  of  his  mind  and  heart  run  to  waste, 
verily  he  is  an  atheist,  he  does  by  his  conduct  prove  that 
he  does  not  believe  man  to  be  a  child  and  image  of  the 
Most  High,  destined  to  pattern  his  life  upon  that  of  Divine 
perfection.  He  that  defrauds  his  neighbors  in  any  matter 
great  or  small,  who  uses  false  weights  and  false  measures,  is 
an  atheist:  he  does  not  believe  in  a  God  that  hates  decep- 
tion and  injustice.  He  is  an  atheist  that  deprives  the 
hireling  of  his  wages,  and  takes  away  from  the  needy  the 
fruit  of  his  labor.  That  man  is  indeed  an  atheist,  who 
robs  the  substance  of  his  fellow-men  by  violating  the  laws 
of  the  land,  or  by  bribing  legislatures  to  enact  wicked  laws 


"5 

to  favor  his  iniquitous  schemes.  Jay  Gould  was  an 
atheist,  although  he  belonged  to  a  church  and  was  buried 
by  three  ordained  ministers.  Whoever  sacrifices  duty  and 
conscience  to  his  passions,  is  a  rank  atheist.  That  priest  at 
the  altar  is  an  atheist,  that  teacher  of  righteousness  and 
faith,  whose  heart  burns  with  the  unholy  fire  of  lust. 
Though  he  make  many  genuflections  and  lift  his  eyes  in 
prayer  to  Heaven,  he  does  deny  God  in  his  sinful  soul. 
All  those  were  real  atheists  who  persecuted  their  fellow- 
men  on  account  of  their  faith,  who  tortured  and  murdered 
the  children  of  God  in  the  name  of  God.  Torquemada 
and  Arbues  were  atheists,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
scourged  their  bodies  and  sang  many  litanies  in  honor  of 
their  God.  That  ruler  is  an  atheist  and  an  enemy  of  God, 
who  grinds  the  faces  of  the  poor  and  needy,  who  oppresses 
men  on  account  of  race  and  religion,  who  deprives  human 
beings  of  the  right  to  earn  a  livelihood,  who  withholds 
from  them  the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge  and  leading 
the  lives  of  human  beings.  The  Czar  of  Russia  is  an 
atheist,  although  he  is  at  the  head  of  the  National  Church; 
his  wicked  counselors  deny  God,  because  they  rebel 
against  the  laws  of  Divine  justice.  He  is  an  atheist  who 
calls  darkness  light  and  evil  good,  who  praises  the  despot, 
who  drives  mothers  with  their  babes  out  of  their  homes  in 
midwinter,  and  causes  many  infants  to  die  of  cold  and 
starvation.  The  irreverend  Dr.  Talmage  is  an  atheist, 
though  Sunday  after  Sunday  he  cuts  capers  in  his  pulpit, 
and  calls  himself  the  servant  of  God.  The  God  of  truth 
and  justice  is  not  in  his  heart,  else  he  could  not  call  a 
tyrant  a  benefactor  of  his  people,  who  causes  infinite  woe 
and  misery  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  his  land. 
All  those  teachers  of  religion  are  atheists,  the  Stoeckers 
and  the  Rohlings,  who  on  Sundays  preach  from  their 
pulpits,  "Love  thy  enemy  as  thyself,"  but  as  soon  as  they 
step  out  of  their  church,  do  preach  and  practice  hatred  and 
malice,  spread  calumnies  and  baneful  falsehoods,  and 


n6 

excite  in  the  breasts  of   the  masses  vile  and  bloodthirsty 
passions. 

Whoever  holds  that  a  man  can  be  religious  without 
trying  to  be  absolutely  just,  truthful,  and  merciful  toward 
all  men,  denies  and  blasphemes  God.  Whoever  treats 
his  fellow-men  with  contempt,  and  deems  them  unworthy 
of  associating  with  him  on  account  of  race  or  religion, 
is  an  atheist,  because  he  practically  denies  that  all  men 
are  children  of  one  Heavenly  Father,  who  loves  them  all 
and  whose  majesty  resides  in  them  all.  It  is  on  account 
of  such  practical  atheism  that  the  earth  mourns  and  is  full 
of  desolation.  It  is  on  account  of  such  practical  atheism 
that  the  cries  of  the  depressed  and  down-trodden  are  heard. 
Such  atheism  is  the  parent  of  infinite  woe  and  misery. 
Such  practical  atheism  has  drenched  the  earth  with  the 
tears  and  the  blood  of  the  innocent.  Alas,  how  many  are 
entirely  free  from  practical  atheism?  Ministers  and  lay- 
men, men  and  women,  Gentiles  and  Israelites,  one  way  or 
another  deny  God  in  their  conduct  Oh,  let  us  not  glory 
in  the  religious  doctrines  we  hold,  let  us  not  boast  of  the 
principles  of  faith  which  we  profess.  By  our  fruits  alone 
let  us  prove  that  we  believe  in  an  all-just,  all-wise,  and  all- 
merciful  God.  Let  us  gird  our  loins  in  strength  and  strive 
to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness and  love  on  earth.  Let  us  endeavor  to  make  our  lives 
symbols  of  the  perfection  of  God. 


LOSING  GOD  AND  FINDING  GOD 


A  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT  SERMON. 


"  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found,  call  ye  upon  Him  while 
He  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  man  of  sin  his 
thoughts.  Let  him  return  to  God  who  will  have  mercy  on  him,  and  to 
our  Lord  who  will  abundantly  pardon."  (Isaiah,  lv,  6-7.) 

OD  may  be  found,  declares  the  prophet,  at  certain 
times  favorable  to  spiritual  insight  and  moral  eleva- 
tion. He  is  nigh  unto  us  on  sundry  occasions,  when  the 
external  and  internal  conditions  awaken  in  us  a  quenchless 
longing  to  approach  the  source  of  all  existence  and  the 
fountain  of  our  own  being.  Since,  then,  God  may  be 
found  by  us  at  certain  auspicious  times,  it  follows  that  we 
may  lose  God  under  adverse  outward  and  inward  circum- 
stances, which  dull  the  organ  of  spirituality  and  divorce 
our  soul  from  communion  with  the  universal  Power. 
Verily,  one  may  lose  his  God.  It  sounds  paradoxical 
enough,  yet  it  is  one  of  the  most  far-reaching  and  saddest 
truths.  The  fact  is,  our  highest  possessions  are  most  easily 
lost.  The  noblest  qualities  of  our  humanity,  the  finest 
tendencies  of  our  nature,  the  loftiest  beliefs  of  the  aspiring 
soul  readily  depart  from  us  if  we  make  no  efforts  to  pre- 
serve and  cultivate  and  develop  them.  The  holiest 
spiritual  wants  of  our  soul  are  the  first  to  disappear,  when 
moral  degeneration  sets  in.  Our  lowest  qualities  and  pas- 
sions, those  which  we  have  in  common  with  animals  or 
savages,  will  stay  with  us  to  the  end.  One  may  lose  the 
love  of  knowledge;  one  may  lose  reverence  for  truth  and 
the  sense  of  abhorrence  for  falsehoods  and  calumnies;  one 


n8 

may  lose  the  love  of  justice,  the  love  of  right  and  equity; 
one  may  lose  the  love  of  human  brotherhood  and  the  love 
of  benevolence;  one  may  lose  the  love  of  the  beautiful  and 
the  sublime.  With  the  loss  of  any  of  these  qualities  we 
lose  God  in  proportion.  For  they  are  the  manifestations 
of  the  divine  in  man.  With  their  disappearance  God  fades 
out  of  our  life.  For  God  is  not  a  mere  theory.  The  belief 
in  God  is  not  a  philosophical  truth  which  we  infer  from 
given  premises.  God  is  not  an  object  of  knowledge  like 
any  other  knowledge  to  be  stored  up  in  our  mind  among 
the  thousand  and  one  facts  of  observation  and  reasoning. 
God  to  us,  in  the  deepest  and  widest  sense,  is  life,  ever 
growing  and  rising  life.  God  is  universal  creative  energy 
in  nature;  He  is  moral  energy  in  man.  The  more  truth, 
the  more  God !  The  more  justice,  the  more  religion !  The 
more  love,  the  more  divinity  in  our  soul!  The  more  we 
break  away  from  selfishness,  the  more  surely  do  we  find 
God. 

The  idea  of  God  and  self-centered  egotism  form 
irreconcilable  contrasts.  True  religion  and  selfishness 
exclude  and  repel  each  other.  He  that  walks  in  the  way 
of  self-seeking  can  not  find  God.  Narrow,  hard-hearted 
selfishness  is  the  root  of  all  sin  and  godlessness.  Genuine 
atheism  never  springs  from  philosophical  reasoning,  is 
never  the  result  of  any  theory  of  the  world  and  man. 
Even  those  philosophers  who  deny  God  with  their  lips 
have  Him  in  their  heart.  They  deny  names,  traditions, 
dogmas.  But  underneath  their  very  unbelief  there  is  stir- 
ring the  spirit  of  faith  in  the  universal,  divine  unity,  faith 
in  the  kinship  of  all  minds  and  the  brotherhood  of  all  men, 
faith  in  supreme  and  eternal  principles  of  goodness  unit- 
ing all  mortals  and  binding  upon  all  souls.  Their  denial 
and  unbelief  invariably  lead  to  God  along  new  pathways  of 
loftier  thought.  But  true  atheism  or  godlessness  is  always 
of  a  practical  nature.  It  is  the  selfish  life,  as  opposed  to 
the  life  with  God  and  humanity.  The  real  atheist  is  the 


individual  who  imprisons  himself  within  his  own  narrow 
self,  shuts  out  all  common  and  higher  interests,  separates 
himself  from  the  joys  and  sorrows  and  burdens  of  the 
world,  is  indifferent  to  all  aims  and  relations  which  do  not 
promise  personal  utility.  This  selfish  isolation  and  blind 
self-love  is  atheism  in  its  essence  and  manifestation. 

For  the  soul  of  all  religion,  theoretical  and  practical,  is 
unity.  Religion  is  the  belief  in  the  unity  of  all  things,  of 
nature  and  mankind,  in  one  eternal  Being;  the  unity  of  all 
the  works  and  the  thoughts  of  man  in  his  long  career  on 
earth,  the  unity  of  all  star  systems  and  of  the  whole  drama  of 
humanity's  life,  in  one  supreme  all-wise  Power.  The  truly 
religious  man  feels  and  knows  that  he  is  a  part,  though  an 
infinitesimal  part,  of  the  universal  and  eternal  Unity.  The 
fruit  of  that  knowledge  is  humility.  We  stand  in  awe  and 
meekness  in  the  presence  of  the  Infinite,  with  whom  we 
are  bound  up  together  in  every  fibre  of  our  being,  in  every 
thought  and  motion,  in  all  our  faculties  and  works.  We 
find  God  the  very  moment  we  realize  that  we  can  not  for 
one  single  instant  break  away  from  our  relations  to  God  as 
revealed  in  nature  and  humanity,  as  manifested  in  eternal 
laws  governing  the  external  world  and  determining  every 
movement  of  the  inner  world.  We  feel  our  individual 
insignificance,  because  our  eyes  are  ever  straining  to  gaze 
upon  the  countenance  of  the  divine  unity  and  life.  We 
feel  our  infinite  dignity,  because  we  know  that  we  are  a 
revelation  of  the  Eternal.  We  break  down  all  fences  and 
walls  which  separate  us  from  God  in  nature  and  humanity. 
Love  draws  us  towards  the  center  of  existence,  from  which 
we  have  radiated.  We  try  to  complete  our  poor  individual 
life  by  assimilating  to  ourselves  the  glory  and  beauty  and 
wisdom  and  power  of  God  unfolded  in  the  endless  evolu- 
tion of  His  infinite  life.  We  yearn  after  the  parent  cause 
of  our  being,  and  find  God  along  the  path  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  His  ways.  As  soon  as  we  strive  to  grow  beyond 
the  limits  of  our  fragmentary,  narrow  self,  we  find  ourselves 


120 


standing  before  the  majesty  of  the  Divine  and  Eternal  and 
Infinite,  and  in  steady  stream  His  light  pours  upon  the 
soul  which  yearns  to  be  at  one  with  the  universal  mind. 
This  is  the  reward  of  humility;  the  individual  finds  God 
near  him,  because  he  seeks  Him  in  the  universal  life. 

The  footsteps  of  the  Deity  can  be  discerned  along  the 
highways  of  knowledge.  The  more  knowledge  we  find, 
the  more  truly  do  we  find  God.  Every  truth  we  discover 
brings  us  nearer  to  Him,  of  whom  all  things  are  but  signs 
and  symbols.  Knowledge  growing  from  more  to  more  is 
the  progressive  translation  of  the  mind  and  life  of  the 
Infinite  into  the  mind  and  life  of  man.  For  all  nature  is 
the  incarnated  thought  and  will  of  God. 

The  universe  is  the  volume  in  which  are  writ  the  self- 
revelations  of  the  Eternal.  History  is  the  record  of  the 
manifestations  of  His  wisdom,  of  His  attributes,  of  His 
all-wise  laws,  through  the  minds  of  superior  men,  who  have 
felt  after  Him  and  longed  after  communion  with  His  ways. 
Through  knowledge  the  currents  of  the  universal  Mind 
flow  into  our  individual  mind.  To  use  an  expression  of 
the  Talmud,  we  are  like  the  blessed  in  paradise.  We  sit 
rejoicing  in  the  effulgence  and  glory  of  the  Shechina,  the 
divine  Spirit  diffusing  itself  through  nature  and  humanity. 
This  truth  forms  one  of  the  central  ideas  of  Judaism- 
Religion  is  called  the  knowledge  of  God  and  His  ways. 
Again  and  again  the  injunction  is  laid  upon  Israel  to  know 
God  and  the  books  of  revelation.  "One  of  the  chiefest 
crowns  of  our  humanity  is  the  crown  of  learning."  He 
that  despises  knowledge  turns  away  from  God.  "Because 
thou  hast  despised  knowledge,"  says  the  prophet  Hosea  to 
the  priesthood  of  his  time,  "He  has  rejected  thee  to  be  His 
priest."  The  love  of  His  knowledge  has  been  ever  regarded 
by  Judaism  as  the  love  of  God.  To  pursue  wisdom  means 
to  the  true  son  of  Israel  to  search  after  God. 

Those  of  you  who  have  lost  the  love  of  knowledge,  the 
distinctive  characteristic  of  Israel,  have  necessarily  lost 


121 

God.    If  a  man  shuts  himself  up  forever  in  a  room,  closing 
all  windows  and  doors,   stopping  up  every  keyhole  and 
chink,  he  certainly  can  not  know  and  judge  the  world 
without.     He  may  see,  by  means  of  some  rushlight  or  a 
few  stray  rays  penetrating  through  some  cracks,  the  few 
objects  within  his  narrow  prison.     But  all  the  beauty  and 
glory  and   richness   and  joy  in    the  world   without  will 
remain  hidden  from  him,  and  his  former  knowledge  thereof 
will  soon  fade  out  of  his  mind.     If  you  are  indifferent  to 
the  knowledge  of  nature  and  humanity,  you  wilfully  and 
permanently  shut  yourself  up  in  the  prison  of  your  narrow 
self.     You  take  note  only  of  the  few  things  which  concern 
your  own  self,  your  personal  wants  and  cares.     But  the 
great  world  without  you,  the  majestic  world  of  nature  and 
the  still  more  glorious  world  of  mankind  do  not  exist  for 
you.     Such   men   can   not  find   God,  because  they  have 
abandoned  the  way  of  knowledge,  along  which  alone  He 
can  be  found.     Those  who  complain  that  they  have  lost 
God,  that  He  is  far  from  their  mind  and  heart,  ought  to 
remember  that  this  fatal  condition  is  due  to  their  own  nar- 
row materialistic  selfishness.      Those  who    have   become 
all  earthly  have  lost  the  mental  organ  by  which  to  appre- 
hend spiritual    facts.     Those    who    are    wholly   absorbed 
in    things   material,   those   whose    faculties    are    entirely 
used    up    in    the    service    of    selfish    gain    and   pleasure, 
have  no  means  of  entering  the  Temple  of  Truth,  in  whose 
holy  of  holies  dwells  enthroned  the  supreme  idea,  the  idea 
of  God.    If  you  tie  up  the  wings  of  your  spirit  so  that  they 
lose  from  want  of  use  the  power  of  upward  flight,  how  can 
you  hope  to  rise  into  the  pure  and  spiritual  air  of  the  ideal? 
If  there  is  no  spirit  in  you,  how  can  you  expect  to  approach 
in  prayer,  meditation,  and  aspiring  knowledge  the  Spirit  of 
all  spirits?     If  you  habitually  refuse  to  seek  a  home  for 
your  mind  in  the  world  of  ideas,  it  is  impossible  that  you 
should    feel    yourself    nigh    unto    Him    who   is    the   all- 
embracing,  all-creative   idea,   the  absolute  and  universal 
intelligence. 


122 

All  men  can  not  be  searchers  after  truth,  all  men  can  not 
devote  their  best  energies  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  in 
the  field  of  nature  and  humanity,  but  all  of  us  can  bask  in 
the  light  of  truth,  kindled  by  illumined  minds.  All  of  us 
may  sit  down  as  invited  guests  at  the  banquet  of  wisdom, 
prepared  by  innumerable  men,  who  were  rich  in  original 
insight,  who  hungered  and  thirsted  after  the  knowledge  of 
God. 

Those  who  refuse  to  put  themselves  into  close  touch 
with  the  searchers  after  God,  with  the  searchers  after  truth, 
simply  bar  their  way  to  the  blissful  belief  in  an  all-wise, 
all-penetrating,  all-loving,  divine  Presence.  For  He  has 
not  left  Himself  without  witnesses.  He  has  spoken  to  us, 
and  continually  speaks  to  us,  through  the  soul  and  with  the 
voice  of  the  path-finders  of  humanity,  who  have  sought 
Him,  His  light  and  His  truth,  His  laws  of  righteousness 
and  love,  with  all  their  heart.  The  immortal  lovers  of  God 
and  man,  the  seers  of  the  world,  ascended  to  the  summits  of 
thought,  which  touch  the  very  heavens,  and  brought  down 
the  light  of  God,  the  law  of  life,  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
more  precious  than  all  gold  and  all  material  pleasures. 
How  can  you  hope  to  find  God,  if  you  refuse  to  follow  the 
lead  of  the  men  of  supreme  genius  who  sought  Him  and 
His  light  all  their  life,  who  found  Him  along  the  path  of 
knowledge  and  goodness?  The  Bibles  of  humanity  lie 
open  before  us  inviting  us  to  take  hold  of  the  spiritual 
experience  of  the  world's  best  and  most  original  minds. 
If  you  refuse  to  read  the  pages  written  with  the  heart's 
blood  of  the  wisest  and  noblest  of  the  children  of  men,  it  is 
natural  that  your  spiritual  life  should  be  pitiably  poor. 
Many  have  lost  God  because  in  the  pursuit  of  material 
interests  they  have  lost  the  love  of  knowledge.  Those  who 
keep  away  from  the  house  of  God,  who  have  suppressed 
within  themselves  the  desire  to  listen  to  words  of  instruc- 
tion, should  not  marvel  that  they  can  not  find  God  in  their 
hearts  when  they  seek  Him  on  rare  occasions,  such  as  this 


123 

day.  Those  that  habitually  despise  knowledge  can  not 
feel  themselves  priests  of  God  when  some  strange  mood  or 
accident  or  a  holiday  moves  them  to  approach  Him.  Let 
them  resolve  to  abandon  their  ways  of  wilful  ignorance. 
For  callous  indifference  to  knowledge  is  atheism.  It  leads 
to  the  death  of  the  soul.  Let  them  return  to  God  and 
worship  Him,  as  the  all-sustaining,  all-determining  and 
creative  Unity  of  all  things.  Let  them  find  His  ways  by 
the  light  of  knowledge. 

Rising  to  still  higher  religious  thought,  we  worship 
God,  the  universal  Spirit,  as  the  Unity  of  all  spirits.  As 
it  is  said:  "He  is  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh."  All 
minds  are  one  in  the  Eternal  Mind.  All  minds  have  their 
center  and  the  cause  of  their  unfolding  faculties  in  God. 
He  is  the  central  sun  of  reason,  and  all  minds  revolve 
around  Him,  forming  the  living  harmony  of  humanity  in 
its  relation  to  the  parent  source  of  all  intelligence.  Under 
this  aspect,  religion  means  to  feel  the  kinship  of  all  souls 
in  God,  to  realize  the  brotherhood  of  all  men  by  virtue  of 
their  spiritual  unity  in  the  Eternal.  The  more  closely 
men  unite  themselves  in  social,  religious,  moral,  and  phil- 
anthropic relations,  the  more  truly  do  they  find  God.  For 
in  this  unity  among  men  does  God  reveal  Himself.  Do  we 
not  read  in  the  Sayings  of  the  Father:  "Whenever  ten  or 
even  three  men  meet  together  and  busy  themselves  with 
things  spiritual,  with  matters  concerning  the  laws  of  God 
and  general  welfare,  the  divine  Spirit  is  among  them"? 

The  first  holy  circle  of  divine  unity  amongst  men  is 
the  unity  between  husband  and  wife.  Husband  and  wife 
who  love  each  other  fervently  and  faithfully,  who  with 
each  succeeding  year  of  their  wedded  life  grow  more  and 
more  into  one  being,  one  soul  and  one  heart,  find  God  by 
this  their  love.  He  is  with  them  in  their  mutual  tender- 
ness and  self-sacrificing  devotion.  As  far  as  they  have 
conquered  selfishness  and  become  one  through  love,  God 
is  nigh  unto  them  in  their  very  heart  and  soul.  But  if 


124 

husband  and  wife  move  through  life  without  love,  if  their 
union  is  but  that  of  prisoners  for  life,  chained  together  by 
law,  they  surely  can  not  find  God,  even  though  they  may 
observe  all  outward  forms  of  religious  devotion.  Those 
whose  selfishness  expels  love  from  their  marital  relations, 
banish  God,  who  is  the  fountain  of  all  love  and  union,  from 
their  heart  and  home.  To  return  to  God,  therefore,  means 
first  of  all  that  the  hearts  of  husband  and  wife  should 
purge  themselves  of  every  taint  of  selfishness  and  blend 
together  in  love.  By  so  doing  they  find  God. 

Where  mutual  love,  mutual  respect  and  helpfulness 
bind  together  parents  and  children,  brothers  and  sisters, 
all  the  members  of  such  a  household  form  a  true  family. 
Theirs  is  a  spiritual  unity  which  renews  itself  every  day  in 
their  hearts  and  actions  and  words,  and  grows  holier, 
stronger,  and  more  beautiful  with  the  advancing  years  of 
the  parents  and  the  unfolding  of  the  children's  bodies  and 
minds.  The  spiritual  unity  of  such  a  family  is  in  very 
truth  a  revelation  of  the  Lord  of  all  spirits.  Such  parents 
and  such  children  can  not  lose  God,  because  He  is  stirring 
as  love,  as  duty  and  devotion  at  the  core  of  their  hearts. 
The  parents  represent  the  mercy  and  wisdom  of  God  and 
the  spiritual  growth  of  humanity  to  their  children.  The 
children  represent  the  chain  of  spiritual  unity  with  which 
the  universal  mind  knits  together  all  generations.  A 
happy  home  is  the  first  temple  of  God.  The  table  at 
which  father  and  mother  and  children  sit  together  in  joy 
and  contentment  is  the  true  altar  of  the  God  of  love.  The 
unity  of  such  a  family,  the  unity  in  thought  and  feeling,  in 
sympathy  and  co-operation,  is  the  type  and  fountain-head 
of  all  forms  of  unity  among  men.  It  is  the  result  and 
symbol  of  the  unity  subsisting  between  our  common  Father 
and  all  His  children. 

Those  families  in  which  parental  ignorance  and  rude- 
ness, filial  ingratitude,  disobedience,  and  hardness  of  heart 
keep  father  and  mother  and  children  estranged  from  one 


"5 

another,  those  families  in  which  selfishness,  envy,  and 
mutual  ill-will  sway  brothers  and  sisters,  are  a  parody  on 
the  idea  of  God  dwelling  with  the  children  of  men  and 
causing  kindred  beings  to  make  one  music  of  feeling, 
thought,  and  action.  Such  families  are  a  travesty  upon 
the  belief  that  human  love  is  a  reflection  of  divine  love. 
The  fountains  of  faith,  hope,  and  trust  dry  up  in  them. 
There  may  be  daily  prayers,  religious  ceremonies  and 
observances,  they  may  have  God  on  their  lips,  but  He  is 
absent  from  their  hearts.  If  we  are  to  find  God  this  day  or 
any  other  day,  we  must  turn  our  heart  in  love  and  faith- 
fulness to  our  kindred.  If  thus  we  forsake  the  way  of 
selfishness,  God  will  have  mercy  on  us  and  reveal  Him- 
self as  union  and  love  and  kindness  in  the  family  circle. 

That  the  family  is  the  nursery  and  home  of  all  true 
religion,  was  clearly  perceived  and  beautifully  stated  by 
the  seers  of  Israel.  The  chosen  people,  the  people  des- 
tined to  bring  the  blessings  of  the  belief  in,  and  the 
worship  of,  one  only  God,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  Father  of  mankind,  to  all  the  races  of  the  earth, 
is  said  to  have  taken  rise  in  one  family,  the  family  of 
Abraham.  The  light  of  that  faith  was  transmitted  and 
increased  through  three  successive  generations  of  families. 
At  last  it  became  the  heritage  of  a  whole  people,  and  that 
people  was  chosen  to  become  a  blessing  and  the  means  of 
union  to  all  the  families  of  the  earth.  This  is  an  intimation 
of  profound  significance.  Family  union  and  family  love 
must  be  enlarged  in  our  sympathies  to  a  union  of  the 
whole  people,  to  a  union  of  our  whole  religious  com- 
munity. Our  heart  and  mind  must  at  last  embrace  the 
whole  human  family  within  the  circle  of  our  highest 
interests.  Our  spirit  must  go  forth  in  kindness  towards 
all  men  and  form  a  unity  with  all  spirits.  By  such  feelings 
of  compassion  for  all,  by  such  thoughts  of  all-embracing 
harmony  to  which  actions  must  correspond,  our  life  comes 
to  be  identified  with  the  universal  life  of  humanity.  We 


126 

make  ourselves  the  center  of  mankind's  ever-growing 
divine  life.  Our  soul  reflects  the  unity  of  all  men  in  God. 
Our  sympathy  with  their  sorrows  and  joys  is  a  direct 
revelation  of  the  love  of  God  for  all  His  children.  We  find 
God  in  our  heart  and  soul  and  action. 

Let  us  all,  however,  take  warning:  Family  love  and 
unity  may  be  hardened  into  family  selfishness  and  god- 
lessness.  Many  men  make  their  home  the  prison  of  their 
soul.  All  love,  all  tenderness,  all  care  and  labor  for  their 
family  alone,  but  callousness,  utter  indifference  to  the  wel- 
fare of  those  standing  without  the  pale  of  their  family! 
The  world  at  large  has  no  existence  to  the  hearts  of  such 
men,  except  as  it  may  be  exploited  for  their  own  families. 
The  happiness  of  other  families,  the  education  and  honor 
of  other  men's  children  are  matters  of  indifference,  if  not 
of  envy,  to  them.  The  cry  of  human  suffering  touches  no 
chord  of  their  hearts.  The  works  of  charity  in  which  they 
share  are  not  the  results  of  genuine  sympathy,  but  are  due 
to  social  compulsion.  Whatever  good  they  may  do  to 
others,  does  not  flow  from  love  for  their  fellow-men,  but 
from  calculation  or  from  an  irksome  sense  of  the  impossi- 
bility to  escape  such  deeds.  Whatever  pecuniary  sacrifices 
they  may  occasionally  make  for  philanthropic  institutions, 
for  congregational  purposes,  they  regard  as  acts  of  robbery 
against  their  families.  Their  hearts  do  not  beat  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  deathless  life  of  their  nation.  They  do  not 
identify  themselves  with  the  eternal  intellectual,  moral, 
and  social  interests  of  the  people.  Their  narrow  sym- 
pathies keep  them  ouside  the  mighty  currents  of  divine  life, 
manifested  in  the  literature  and  the  moral  aspirations  of 
their  time  and  generation.  They  do  not  place  themselves 
within  earshot  of  the  voice  of  the  universal  Spirit,  speaking 
through  His  chosen  instruments  in  art,  philosophy,  history, 
and  all  other  utterances  of  the  Divine  in  humanity.  They 
refuse  to  take  part  in  the  sorrows  and  hopes,  in  the 
repentance  and  exultation  of  the  human  race.  The  word 


127 

"humanity"  is  an  empty  sound  to  them.  The  ideals  of 
humanity  are  regarded  by  them  as  the  foolish  day-dreams 
of  visionaries.  Living  thus  wilfully  away  from  God  who 
reveals  Himself  in  the  secular  life  of  humanity,  they 
naturally  can  not  find  Him.  When  their  heart  cries, 
Where  is  God?  no  divine  voice  answers  from  the  heights 
of  Sinai :  "  Here  I  am !  The  place  whereon  thou  standest 
is  holy  ground,  the  sacred  ground  of  humanity's  spiritual 
growth  through  perennial  communion  with  the  Infinite." 

All  those  that  have  lost  God  through  narrowness  and 
hardness  of  heart,  all  those  from  whom  God  is  far,  because 
they  live  in  egotistical  self-isolation,  will  find  Him  by 
renewing  in  contrition  the  covenant  of  brotherhood  with 
their  fellow-men,  the  covenant  of  active  sympathy  with 
humanity's  life.  God  is  the  pre-established  harmony  of  the 
spirits  of  all  beings.  By  identifying  ourselves  with  the 
personality,  with  the  moral  and  intellectual  interests  and 
highest  aspirations  of  our  fellow-men,  by  forming  a  spirit- 
ual union,  starting  with  the  family  and  embracing  ever 
larger  and  larger  circles  of  humanity,  we  re-establish 
within  us  that  divine  harmony  which  had  been  overthrown 
or  hidden  by  our  selfishness.  By  abandoning  the  ways  of 
self-seeking  and  returning  to  our  fellow-men,  we  return  to 
God.  He  is  again  found  by  us  in  our  heart  and  soul.  As 
we  feel  our  oneness  with  the  children  of  God  in  the  spirit 
of  love  and  faithful  co-operation,  we  experience  the 
presence  of  the  Eternal,  who  is  the  cause  and  end  of  the 
unity  of  mankind. 

"L/ove  thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  and  "Love  the  Lord, 
thy  God,  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  might,"  of  old  have  been  declared  to  be  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Judaism.  They  cohere  as  the  two 
sides  of  one  idea.  They  are  one  creative  truth,  uttering 
itself  forth  in  two  strains.  The  love  of  man  and  the  love 
of  God  spring  from  the  belief  in  the  unity  of  mankind 
embraced  in  the  unity  of  God.  He  that  loves  his  neighbor 


128 

loves  God,  the  Father  of  all  men.  He  that  loves  God,  in 
the  true  spirit  of  Israel  and  not  according  to  ancient  or 
modern  paganism,  can  not  help  loving  his  fellow-men, 
because  they  are  manifestations  and  symbols  of  the  Divine. 
Rising  to  the  highest  religious  idea  of  Israel,  we  wor- 
ship God  as  absolute  justice,  infinite  love,  the  parent  source 
of  all  finite  goodness,  the  prototype  of  all  human  love.  We 
adore  Him  as  the  realized  ideal  of  moral  perfection.  He 
is  all-just,  all-merciful,  and  holy.  As  it  is  said,  "The  Rock, 
all  His  doings  are  perfect,  for  all  His  ways  are  justice.  He 
is  a  God  of  faithfulness  without  any  evil.  Just  and 
upright  is  He.  The  Eternal  is  merciful  and  gracious, 
abundant  in  mercy  and  truth."  The  attributes  of  God 
well  up  from  the  soul  of  man  as  moral  ideas.  His  ways 
are  revealed  as  the  ways  of  eternal  life  to  individuals  and 
nations.  His  being  is  the  universal  law;  the  qualities  of 
His  holy  will  manifest  themselves  as  moral  laws  in  the 
consciousness  of  those  that  seek  Him.  To  love  God  means 
to  walk  in  His  ways.  The  destiny  of  man,  individual  and 
collective,  is  to  become  an  image,  however  faint,  of  divine 
perfection.  The  highest  aim  of  man  is  to  grow  steadily 
in  the  elements  of  justice  and  mercy  and  truth.  This 
is  the  highest  end  of  human  life,  both  of  the  individual 
and  of  humanity.  The  moral  good  is  our  ultimate  good. 
All  other  ends  are  but  means  to  that  supreme  end.  The 
noblest  of  all  ambitions  is  to  strive  to  be  godlike  in  doing 
justice,  in  loving  mercy,  and  walking  humbly  in  the  ways 
of  God.  A  man  may  obtain  the  most  coveted  objects  of 
all  forms  of  ambition,  and  yet,  if  he  misses  that  one 
ambition,  if  he  fails  to  develop  a  character  swayed  in  all 
its  movements  by  the  moral  laws,  his  whole  life  is  worth- 
less and  a  striving  after  the  wind.  A  good  man  needs  not 
to  ask,  Where  is  God?  For  He  is  ever  nigh  unto  him. 
If  you  love  justice  and  do  battle  for  it,  you  have  found 
God,  for  He  is  justice.  If  you  have  compassion  on  the 
poor,  succor  the  needy,  clothe  the  naked,  lift  up  the  fallen, 


129 

dry  the  tears  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  you  are  realiz- 
ing the  will  of  the  living  God.  The  God  of  love  is  with 
you,  revealing  Himself  in  the  beauty  and  holiness  of  your 
charitable  works.  A  just  and  merciful  man  shares  in  the 
life  of  God.  He  co-operates  with  the  plans  of  Providence 
and  helps  to  work  out  the  salvation  of  the  race.  He  is 
the  instrument  of  God  in  uprooting  evil  and  planting 
good,  in  fighting  the  powers  of  hatred  and  malice.  He  is 
spreading  the  reign  of  universal  love. 

But  he  who  is  not  fired  with  the  ambition  to  grow  in 
the  qualities  of  goodness,  necessarily  loses  God.  The 
individual  or  the  nation  that  rebels  against  justice,  that 
tramples  underfoot  the  rights  of  the  weak  and  the 
stranger,  can  not  approach  God.  He  that  gathers  riches 
by  fraud  and  violence,  he  who  builds  his  house  by  injustice, 
can  not  find  God  in  his  heart  nor  in  the  bosom  of  his 
family.  God  and  wickedness  can  not  dwell  together.  If 
you  take  no  delight  in  doing  works  of  charity,  if  you  do 
not  seek  happiness  in  making  your  fellow-men  happy,  how 
can  you  hope  to  find  God,  who  is  the  Father  of  love  and 
the  Giver  of  all  good?  Selfishness  is  the  root  of  sin.  The 
sins  of  injustice  and  cruelty  of  every  kind  banish  us  from 
the  presence  of  God.  "Your  sins,"  says  the  prophet, 
"have  separated  you  and  Me,  your  Lord."  Immorality  in 
feeling,  thought,  and  action  is  true  atheism,  practical 
atheism,  which  is  an  abomination  to  God  and  the  soul  of 
humanity.  The  prayers  of  the  unjust,  the  uncharitable, 
and  the  false  are  blasphemies.  Their  temples  are  dens  of 
moral  vileness.  The  religion  of  persecutors,  the  worship 
of  race-proud  maligners,  is  hateful  to  the  Father  of  man- 
kind. Says  the  prophet  Isaiah:  "When  ye  come  to  appear 
before  Me,  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hands,  to  tread 
My  courts?  Your  appointed  feasts  My  soul  hateth.  And 
when  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  Mine  eyes 
from  you.  Yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not 
hear;  your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash  ye,  make  you 


130 

clean ;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  Mine 
eyes;  cease  to  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well;  seek  judgment, 
relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the 
widow.  Then,  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall 
be  as  white  as  snow;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson, 
they  shall  be  as  wool."  The  monition  comes  also  to  us 
from  the  heart  of  infinite  goodness ;  the  same  promise  of 
divine  presence  and  grace  addresses  itself  to  us  on  this 
great  Day  of  Atonement.  The  genius  of  Israel  cries  aloud : 
"Seek  ye  the  Lord,  while  He  may  be  found.  Call  upon 
Him,  while  He  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  man  of  sin  his  thoughts."  Those  who  have  lost 
God,  who  is  the  realized  ideal  of  perfection  and  the  fount- 
ain of  all  goodness,  will  find  Him,  if  they  make  man's 
highest  good,  the  moral  ideal,  the  chief  theme  of  their 
thoughts  and  the  leading  motive  of  all  their  actions. 
Those  who  complain  that  God  is  far  from  them  will  soon 
feel  the  breath  of  His  presence,  if  they  forsake  the  ways  of 
pitiless  selfishness  and  strive  to  make  themselves  a  bless- 
ing to  their  fellow-men.  Let  but  the  unrighteous  man 
prostrate  himself  in  humility  before  the  throne  of  Jus- 
tice, let  the  uncharitable  open  his  hand  and  heart  to  the 
poor  and  needy,  and  lo  and  behold,  the  certainty  of  divine 
mercy  and  compassion  will  come  to  him  with  healing  on 
its  wings. 

If  you  strive  steadily  to  stamp  your  character  with  the 
likeness  of  divine  qualities,  if  you  make  it  the  highest 
ambition  of  your  existence  to  be  fellow-worker  with 
God  in  establishing  justice  and  mercy  and  truth  on  earth, 
He  will  be  nigh  unto  you,  and  you  will  feel  in  your  heart 
the  uplifting  influence  of  His  spirit.  You  will  understand 
in  your  soul  the  beneficent  purposes  of  His  providence, 
and  through  wisdom  and  sacrifices  endeavor  to  carry  His 
will  into  execution.  Your  sorrows  and  your  joys,  your 
sufferings  and  hopes  will  help  you  to  realize  that  you 
are  not  alone  and  forsaken,  but  that  He  is  with  you 


even  in  the  night  of  your  affliction,  disciplining  you  to 
the  service  of  suffering  humanity.  If  you  break  away 
from  selfishness,  your  very  griefs  and  pains  will  prove 
spiritual  blessings  to  you.  They  will  open  your  heart  to 
sympathize  with  the  sufferings  of  your  fellow-men.  They 
will  cause  you  to  thrill  with  godlike  compassion  for  the 
afflicted  children  of  men.  They  will  cause  you  to  go 
forth  as  a  messenger  of  God's  mercy,  to  heal  wounds 
and  dry  tears,  to  turn  sadness  into  joy  and  despair  into 
hope.  By  such  growth  in  the  beauty  and  holiness  of  sav- 
ing compassion  you  will  fulfill  the  highest  aims  of  religion. 
For  every  man  is  destined  to  be  a  watchman  and  tiller  in 
this  garden  planted  by  God,  a  sower  of  good  and  uprooter  of 
evil.  We  are  all  called  to  co-operate  with  God  in  making 
human  life  ever  better,  ever  more  spiritual  and  beautiful. 

We  can  not  understand  the  mystery  of  evil,  but  this 
much  we  know,  that  it  is  to  be  made,  by  works  of  love  and 
by  submission,  a  means  of  salvation  and  moral  growth. 
The  world,  alas,  is  full  of  evils,  physical  and  mental. 
There  are  the  innumerable  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to. 
There  are  the  diseases  which  gnaw  at  the  vitals,  consume 
the  marrow  of  our  bones,  float  as  poison  in  our  blood,  rack 
our  nerves,  and  torture  our  brain.  There  are  the  terrors  of 
imagination,  worse  than  all  real  evils.  There  are  the  evils 
born  of  folly  and  sin,  which  have  come  down  with  us 
from  the  years  bygone,  dogging  our  steps,  harrowing  our 
conscience,  and  meting  out  a  hundredfold  retribution  for 
past  transgressions.  There  are  the  evils  born  of  the  wick- 
edness and  brutality  of  men,  the  evils  of  hatred  and 
prejudice,  of  bloodthirsty  religious  or  racial  fanaticism. 
There  are  the  evils  of  willful  falsehood  and  treacherous 
calumny.  All  these  demons  of  evil  plague  the  human  race, 
and  who  of  us  has  not  his  share  of  them? 

Some  men  find  God  through  sorrow  and  suffering,  far 
more  lose  Him  through  pain  and  distress.  The  selfish 
man,  when  he  is  in  tribulation,  physical  or  mental,  cries  in 


132 

the  agony  of  his  soul  that  he  can  find  God  nowhere,  neither 
in  the  world  without  nor  within  his  own  soul.  In  pros- 
perity and  health  he  lives  in  egotistical  self-isolation,  far 
from  his  fellow-men  and  far  from  God.  In  sorrow  and  sick- 
ness also  he  dwells  alone  in  the  narrow  prison  of  his  poor 
self.  Woe  to  the  selfish  man,  when  he  is  beset  with  evils! 
Woe  to  him  when  nature  assails  him,  with  her  poisoned 
arrows,  when  she  takes  pitiless  vengeance  on  him  for  trans- 
gressions committed  wittingly  or  unwittingly!  Whither 
shall  he  flee  for  refuge  from  himself?  In  what  thought  can 
egotism  offer  him  a  means  of  self-delivery?  He  has  cared 
for  the  world  only  as  far  as  it  supplied  him  with  his  wants. 
He  has  interested  himself  in  the  life  of  his  fellow-men  only 
as  far  as  he  could  use  them  for  his  own  interests.  To  him 
the  idea  of  God  is  that  of  a  purveyor  of  the  necessaries 
and  pleasures  of  his  life.  God  is  to  him  a  mighty  Being 
that  is  invoked  for  assistance  in  times  of  distress  and  is 
dismissed  and  forgotten  when  no  longer  needed.  He  has 
never  identified  himself  with  God  and  His  eternal  laws, 
ruling  nature  and  mankind.  He  has  never  identified  him- 
self with  the  deathless  sorrows  and  joys,  with  the  struggles 
and  defeats  and  victories  of  humanity.  Therefore  he  is 
left  alone  with  his  troubles.  He  has  infinite  pity  and  hot 
tears  for  himself  in  his  misery,  but  he  has  no  heart-sprung 
tears  and  no  genuine  compassion  for  others.  For  this  rea- 
son he  is  shut  up  in  darkness  with  himself.  Let  his 
wretched  god  of  self  rise  up  and  help  him.  He  may 
multiply  prayers,  but  all  his  prayers  are  but  empty  words. 
He  has  worshiped  and  served  only  self ;  therefore,  there  is 
no  response  from  the  universal  Soul  to  his  dwarfed  soul. 
There  is  no  way  leading  from  his  fenced-in  self  to  Him 
who  is  infinite  Love,  the  Father  and  Saviour  of  all  the 
children  of  men.  Thus  it  is  that  many  men  lose  God 
through  sorrow  and  suffering,  and  cry  out  in  their  heart, 
"There  is  no  God." 

Yet   seasons   of  distress   teach    nobler  natures  to  find 
God  more  than  ever.     They  learn  to  know  and  value  the 


ministry  of  sorrow  and  suffering  as  a  crown  of  glory,  as  a 
means  of  salvation  to  themselves  and  others.  They  real- 
ize more  vividly  than  ever  the  fact  that  they  are  a  part, 
though  most  insignificant  part,  of  the  universal  order  of 
things.  They  feel  they  are  an  integral  part,  living 
members,  of  the  immortal  being  called  humanity.  In 
humility  and  submission  they  return  to  God,  who  is  the 
unity  of  nature  and  mankind,  and  whose  love  they  recog- 
nize in  their  sufferings.  They  take  up  the  will  of  God  into 
their  own  will.  Lovingly  they  embrace  the  laws  of  God 
in  nature  as  the  laws  of  their  own  being.  They  pray  with 
the  seers  and  the  martyrs  of  Israel :  "  Thy  will  be  done, 
O  God,  in  heaven  and  on  earth."  They  recognize  that 
sorrow  and  suffering  are  blessings  in  disguise,  that  they 
have  been  the  means  of  tearing  down  the  walls  of  self 
and  making  man  a  citizen  of  the  universe.  They  recognize 
that  sufferings  and  trials  have  been  and  are  the  means 
used  by  Providence  to  awaken  the  human  mind  from  its 
slumber,  to  compel  the  spirit  of  man  to  find  the  ways  of 
the  Eternal  and  through  the  works  of  reason  to  bring  a 
thousandfold  good  out  of  evil. 

We  shall  find  God,  if  we  come  to  be  thankful  for  our 
very  sufferings  and  trials,  using  them  as  means  of  moral 
discipline  and  spiritual  growth.  He  will  be  nigh  unto 
us,  if  we  accept  in  grateful  meekness  the  painful  conse- 
quences of  our  sins,  regarding  them  as  manifestations  of 
divine  justice,  indwelling  the  constitution  of  things.  We 
shall  no  longer  cry,  "Where  is  God?"  if  our  sorrows  tend 
to  emancipate  us  from  the  bondage  of  selfishness,  if  they 
cause  our  hearts  to  sympathize  with  the  woes  of  our  fellow- 
men,  impelling  us  to  hasten  to  the  rescue  of  those  in 
danger,  to  lift  up  the  fallen,  to  dry  the  tears  of  the  poor 
and  oppressed.  Doing  the  work  of  divine  mercy  to  the 
best  of  our  ability,  we  shall  experience  the  grace  of  Heaven, 
rising  as  from  a  living  spring  from  our  soul.  As  the  fruit 
springs  from  the  blossom,  so  will  atonement  be  the  issue 


134 

of  our  own  merciful  feelings  and  actions.  Let  us  be 
grateful  for  our  sufferings  and  sorrows,  and  regard  them  not 
only  as  a  proof  of  divine  retribution,  but  also  as  signs  of 
divine  love  toward  us.  For  there  are  sufferings  of  love, 
according  to  the  wise  men  of  Israel.  God  intends  to  try 
us,  and  to  bring  into  play  all  the  hidden  possibilities  of 
our  nature. 

Such  is  the  disposition  which  religion  should  produce. 
Such  the  attitude  of  mind  and  heart,  which  the  Day  of 
Atonement  is  to  bring  about.  Let  us,  therefore,  return  to 
God,  to  humanity,  and  our  own  higher  self  by  dint  of  our 
sorrows  and  tribulations.  Let  us  willingly  fall  heir  to  the 
virtues  and  the  experiences  of  Israel.  For  suffering  ever 
was  arid  still  is  the  badge  of  the  Chosen  People.  It  was 
through  infinite  suffering  that  they  have  been  chosen  from 
among  all  nations  to  give  birth  to  the  religion  of  human- 
ity. Israel's  endless  sorrows  have  been  the  means  of 
abounding  grace,  of  the  gospel  of  mercy  and  holiness  to 
the  families  of  the  earth.  On  this  Day  of  Atonement  we 
offer  thanks  unto  the  God  of  Love,  that  He  has  made 
Israel  His  suffering  servant  through  whom  Justice  is  to  be 
established  on  earth.  Let  us  take  to  heart  the  saying  of 
the  rabbis,  "Suffering  is  a  blessing  to  Israel,"  and  let  us 
add,  the  martyrdom  of  Israel  has  been  and  still  is  a  bless- 
ing to  the  world.  The  whole  Bible  is  the  passion  flower 
which  has  grown  out  of  the  bleeding  heart  of  Israel.  Let 
us  fall  heir  to  the  great  principle,  realized  by  Israel,  that 
knowledge  is  worship  and  wilful  ignorance  a  denial  of 
God.  Let  us  bear  the  truth  in  our  hearts,  that  an  ignorant 
Jew,  one  who  refuses  to  make  use  of  the  means  of  wisdom 
and  culture  offered  to  him,  is  a  godless  Jew,  a  shame  to  the 
name  and  conduct  of  his  forefathers.  On  this  great  Day 
of  Atonement  let  us  atone  for  our  shortcomings  and  sins 
by  resolving  to  make  the  moral  life  the  highest  purpose  of 
ouj  existence.  Let  us  fall  heir  to  the  belief  of  Israel, 
that  it  is  man's  mission  to  grow  Godward  in  the  divine 


qualities  of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth.  Let  us  fall  heir  to 
the  belief  of  Israel  that  God  is  the  living,  intelligent 
Unity  of  nature  and  humanity. 

Let  us  try  to  realize  the  awful  idea  of  that  Unity,  by 
making  our  will  move  in  harmony  with  His  will,  by 
identifying  ourselves  with  the  highest  interests  of  human- 
ity. Let  religion  do  a  great  and  noble  work  for  every  one 
of  us.  Religion  should  so  educate  us  that  our  individual 
life  and  being  shall  be,  through  love,  a  center  of  the  life  of 
God  in  man.  Religion  is  the  idea  of  the  Universal  Unity, 
the  synagogue  is  the  symbol  of  that  idea,  worship  is  its 
realization.  Today  we  are  nearer  that  realization  than  on 
other  days,  mostly  given  to  personal,  material  interests  or 
pleasures.  Today  we  are  forming  a  spiritual  union  in  this 
House  of  God,  rising  from  grade  to  grade  in  dignity  and 
universality.  Today  each  family  is  united  before  God, 
its  love  being  consecrated  by  the  presence  of  Divine 
Love.  Today  we  represent  the  spiritual  union  of  all 
Israel,  past,  present,  and  future.  As  the  people  of  human- 
ity we  give  testimony  to  our  faith  in  the  indestructible 
spiritual  unity  of  all  nations  of  the  earth.  Today  we 
pray  for  the  peace  and  moral  advancement  and  happiness 
of  all  the  peoples,  even  those  that  torment  and  persecute 
the  children  of  Israel.  Today  we  rise  on  the  wings  of 
meditation  and  prayer  to  the  firm  belief  that  Yahve,  our 
God,  is  One,  the  Law-giver,  the  King,  the  Father  of  all 
men,  that  in  due  time  He  will  establish  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  on  earth.  Today  we  seek  Him  and  find 
Him.  Today  we  are  blessed  in  knowing  that  He  is  nigh 
unto  us,  when  we  call  unto  Him.  Today  let  each  and 
every  one  of  us  abandon  the  way  of  self-seeking  and  for- 
sake the  path  of  sin.  Today  let  us  return  to  God,  for 
He  is  full  of  compassion,  and  to  our  Lord,  who  will 
abundantly  pardon.  Amen ! 


THE  REASONS  WHY  I  BELIEVE 
IN  GOD. 


i. 

T  ET  us  begin  our  search  after  the  rational  grounds  of 
•*-'  our  belief  in  God.  Let  us  seek  for  proofs,  if  haply 
they  may  be  found,  that  there  exists  an  all-pervading, 
eternal  Unity  Divine  which  embraces  both  the  universe 
and  the  soul.  Let  us  try  to  bring  into  clear  view  cogent 
reasons  for  believing  in  a  supreme  Being,  in  an  ultimate 
Reality  and  creative  Energy  of  which  matter  and  mind, 
force  and  will,  the  external  world  of  nature  and  the  inner 
world  of  consciousness,  are  perennial  manifestations  and 
purposeful  self-revelations.  Let  us  for  the  moment  discard 
all  preconceived  beliefs  and  unbeliefs  and  in  all  seriousness 
and  solemnity  face  the  problem  of  problems,  as  if  we  were 
commissioned  by  mankind  to  find  a  solution  to  it;  as  if  our 
age  depended  on  us  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the 
question,  compared  with  which  all  other  questions  dwindle 
into  utter  insignificance. 

We  know  two  kinds  of  existence,  the  external  material 
world  of  things,  of  objects,  and  the  internal  world  of  con- 
sciousness, of  feelings,  thoughts,  ideas.  The  most  awful 
mystery  of  all  is  this  very  mystery  of  existence  itself.  How 
comes  there  to  be  anything  at  all,  matter  and  motion, 
atoms,  forces,  life  inanimate  and  animate?  How  comes 
there  to  be  feeling,  sensation,  thought,  or  consciousness? 
Space  and  infinitude,  the  home  of  all  being,  time  and 
eternity,  the  stream  in  which  all  that  exists  and  happens 
moves,  rises  to  the  surface  and  disappears ;  what  are  they, 
why  are  they,  why  can  not  we  imagine  them  as  non- 
existent? To  be,  the  eternal,  indestructible  fact  of  being 


137 

in  general,  of  existence  universal,  begin ningl ess,  endless, 
continuous,  that  is  the  question. 

We  can  by  no  effort  of  ours  bring  ourselves  to  deny  that 
something  exists  somehow,  somewhere.  Even  if  we  think 
that  all  things  outside  ourselves  are  unreal  appearances, 
that  this  fair  world,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  merely 
a  dream  of  our  mind,  yet  we  doubters  and  dreamers  still 
exist.  You  can  not  think  of  a  time  when  there  was  abso- 
lutely nothing  in  existence,  nor  are  you  able  to  think  of  a 
time  when  existence  itself  shall  be  annihilated.  Take  the 
wings  of  imagination  and  fly  from  star-system  to  star- 
system  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of  all  known  galaxies, 
beyond  the  region  of  the  faintest  and  remotest  cosmic 
cloud,  even  in  the  heart  of  eternal  night  and  silence  and 
cold  you  are  still  floating  on  the  waves  of  being,  and  are 
unable  to  break  away  from  your  soul's  inseparable  com- 
panion, from  the  idea  of  omnipresent  existence.  Should 
you  fancy  space  beyond  all  stellar  regions  to  be  absolutely 
empty,  still  space  is  left,  space  exists.  You  can  put  no 
bound  to  space  in  thought.  Beyond  the  uttermost  reach 
of  imagination  infinitude  stretches,  one,  indivisible,  eternal, 
pregnant  with  the  seeds  of  star-births,  heaving  with  the 
throbs  of  universal  force.  You  can  not  conceive  a  limit 
set  to  force.  You  can  not  say,  only  to  a  certain  point  in 
space  does  it  go  and  can  not  dart  beyond  a  certain  fixed 
boundary  line.  Where  force  is,  there  dwells  being,  there 
are  beating  the  pulses  of  all-pervading  energy.  Being,  then, 
has  no  limits  in  space  or  time.  Existence  is  infinite  and 
eternal.  Well  may  the  idea  of  infinite  and  eternal  exist- 
ence thrill  us  with  religious  awe,  and  cause  us  to  observe 
towards  it  an  attitude  of  speechless  wonder.  It  is  the 
simplest  and  surest  and  most  universal  fact.  It  is  the  tap- 
root of  all  truths.  It  underlies  all  thoughts. 

Without  the  idea  of  existence  nothing  is  imaginable, 
thinkable,  nothing  is  possible.  Yet  it  is  the  mystery  of 
mysteries.  We  are  so  near  it,  it  surrounds  us,  we  live, 


138 

move,  and  have  our  being  in  it.  Still  it  is  inscrutable. 
We  are  overwhelmed  by  the  thought  that  whatever  is  has 
always  been  and  forever  will  be.  We  prostrate  ourselves 
before  the  unfathomable  mystery  that  matter  and  force, 
the  very  atoms  and  energies  with  which  we  are  every- 
where in  closest  touch,  of  which  we  ourselves  form  a  living 
part,  have  existed  through  boundless  space  from  eternity 
to  eternity.  Before  the  race  of  man  was  born,  before  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars  were  formed,  there  was  the 
same  essence,  the  same  indwelling  power  was  moving 
through  space,  combining,  dissolving,  blossoming,  bearing 
fruit,  decaying  and  awakening  to  new  life  and  activity 
through  seeming  death. 

The  same  substance,  the  same  force,  the  same  laws 
existed  on  and  on,  indestructible,  of  the  self-same  identity, 
ere  the  universe  blossomed  into  its  present  living  harmony 
as  at  this  very  hour. 

Some  of  the  profoundest  religious  minds  of  former  days 
have  stood  like  us  in  worshiping  awe  before  the  unfathom- 
able mystery  of  beginningless,  endless,  and  universal  being. 
They,  too,  wrestled  with  the  attempt  to  comprehend  the 
incomprehensible,  to  express  the  inexpressible.  They 
adored  the  infinite  and  eternal  being  as  the  highest  Being, 
as  the  only  Reality.  They  worshiped  it  as  the  supreme 
Power  behind  all  power,  as  the  permanent  essence  behind 
all  fleeting  appearances.  The  Bible  calls  the  supreme 
Being  Yahve,  "He  who  is,  was,  and  forever  will  be." 
The  Most  High  reveals  himself  to  Moses  as  "  I  Am  that  I 
Am,"  "I  Am,  that  is  my  name."  In  the  theosophical 
speculations  of  the  later  Vedic  poets  the  all-pervading, 
self-existent  essence  is  worshiped  under  the  name  of 
Brahma.  Some  of  the  greatest  Greek  philosophers  called 
God  the  Being,  to  on,  or  the  true  Being,  to  ontos  on. 


II. 

We  have  so  far  considered  the  mystery  of  existence  in 
itself,  in  a  purely  abstract  way.  We  have  been  dealing 
only  with  the  bare,  though  awe-inspiring,  fact  that  some- 
thing infinite  and  eternal  does  exist,  that  something,  be  it 
matter,  force,  mind,  has  always  been,  still  is,  and  forever 
will  be.  But  the  question  of  questions  is :  Is  all  existence 
of  one  essence,  are  all  forms  of  being  one  being,  all  forces 
one  force,  all  manifestations  of  energy  the  outpourings  of 
one  eternal  Energy?  Are  all  minds  lights  reflected  from 
the  effulgence  of  one  infinite  Self?  Does  the  chain  of 
natural  causes  and  effects  begin  and  terminate  in  a  highest 
cause,  in  an  almighty  cause  of  causes?  Is  there  unity  and 
identity  of  essence  in  all  diversity  of  being  and  multi- 
plicity of  forms  ? 

May  it  not  be  that  every  atom  has  from  all  eternity 
been  an  isolated  self-existent  being,  an  individual  inde- 
pendent center  of  force?  Thus  there  would  be  an  infinity 
of  eternal,  uncaused  existences.  We  would  then  have  no 
principle  of  all-pervading,  all-embracing  unity  which  we 
are  seeking  and  which  is  to  be  accounted  the  first  cardinal 
attribute  of  the  one  only  Being,  of  the  ultimate  Reality. 

Nature,  as  known  even  to  the  most  superficial  observers, 
shows  the  assumption  of  an  infinite  number  of  unrelated 
atoms  without  any  communication  with  one  another  to  be 
the  wildest  of  errors,  the  most  senseless  of  all  imaginable 
blunders.  The  universe  does  not  present  itself  to  the 
human  mind  as  a  host  of  countless  self-imprisoned,  unre- 
sponsive atoms  and  forces  which  have  no  relation  to  one 
another,  which  exert  no  influence  upon  one  another,  and 
do  not  mutually  determine  one  another.  If  every  atom 
were  absolutely  shut  up  within  itself,  if  all  were  not  bound 
up  by  an  indwelling  principle  of  unity,  they  would  not  be 
able  to  combine  with  and  interpenetrate  one  another. 
There  would  be  no  change  whatever.  For  all  change  is 
caused  by  the  chemical  marriage  of  atoms  with  atoms,  of 


140 

molecules  with  molecules,  and  by  the  thousand  other 
influences  which  all  elements  exercise  upon  all  others,  be 
they  near  or  far.  There  would  be  no  room  for  the 
universal  play  of  cause  and  effect,  if  there  were  no  eternal 
kinship,  no  inborn  love  between  all  elements  and  forces. 
How  could  all  the  parts  of  the  universe,  the  remotest  and 
the  nearest,  be  connected  together  as  an  harmonious  whole 
by  the  interminable  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  if  there  sub- 
sisted no  eternal  relationship  between  them? 

The  law  of  causality  is  of  universal  validity  and  admits 
of  no  exception.  The  underlying  principle  of  all  science, 
the  supreme  truth,  upon  which  all  the  systems  of  knowl- 
edge rest,  is  the  indestructible  belief,  that  nothing  happens 
within  the  whole  compass  of  existence,  that  nothing  can 
take  place  in  the  life  of  nature  and  man,  without  an 
efficient  cause.  Every  fact  is  the  offspring  of  other  facts 
which  have  gone  before  it  and  stand  to  it  in  the  relation 
of  parent  cause,  and  every  new  fact  must  give  birth  to 
others  which  in  their  turn  are  bound  to  be  the  seeds  of 
events  to  come.  Nothing  great  or  small  that  exists  or 
occurs  in  the  universe  stands  apart  by  itself,  has  the  roots 
of  its  origin  and  activity  in  itself  alone.  Whatever  is  or 
happens  is  joined  together  by  a  chain  of  cause  and  effect 
with  every  part  and  force  in  nature  and  with  the  remotest 
past  of  the  world's  life.  The  whole  present  with  all  its 
countless  phenomena,  with  all  its  multitudinous  forms,  is 
the  child  of  the  past  by  an  endless  succession  of  evolutions, 
which  are  bound  up  together  and  determined  by  the 
indestructible  ties  of  universal  causation.  All  the  star- 
myriads  and  the  fulness  thereof  form  a  living  harmony,  a 
symphony  of  forces  and  movements,  of  action  and  inter- 
action, of  cosmic  growth  and  fruit-bearing.  They  ebb  and 
flow  together  with  the  all-penetrating  currents  of  omni- 
present causation.  They  are  interlaced  and  intertwined 
by  the  unbreakable  chains  of  universal  order. 

Now  the  question  arises :  Why  must  all  kinds  of  exist- 
ence obey  the  law  of  cause  and  effect?  Why  are  all  atoms, 


all  things,  all  phenomena,  all  manifestations  of  force  of 
every  kind,  held  in  the  eternal  embrace  of  causality? 
There  must  be  an  all-sufficient  reason  why  all  things  must 
act  and  react  upon  one  another.  There  must  be  an  efficient 
reason  why  all  particles  of  matter  or  atoms  influence  one 
another  in  a  certain  unalterable  manner,  why  they  com- 
bine with  one  another  according  to  fixed  laws  which  they 
can  not  transgress.  Why  is  the  behavior  of  all  things 
toward  all  others  subject  to  an  unchangeable  rule  and 
order?  On  what  ultimate  ground  does  the  law  of  causality 
rest? 

It  is  clear  that  the  law  of  their  mutual  behavior,  the 
necessity  of  acting  in  a  certain  way  in  harmonious  co-oper- 
ation with  one  another,  must  lie  in  the  original  constitution 
of  all  the  elements  of  nature. 

Now,  if  the  atoms  were  from  all  eternity  self-centered 
individual  beings,  if  they  were  absolutely  the  last  elements 
and  forms  of  existence  behind  which  there  is  no  higher 
reality  and  controlling  power,  how  should  they  come  to 
form  among  themselves  those  everlasting  bonds  of  friend- 
ship, to  establish  the  unchangeable  laws  of  their  conduct 
toward  one  another?  Did  all  the  atoms  in  the  starless 
foretime  once  meet  in  counsel,  and  did  they  say  to  one 
another:  "It  will  not  do  for  us  to  remain  forever  in  our 
state  of  single  existence  and  unprofitable  isolation.  We 
must  form  an  everlasting  and  perfect  union.  Let  us 
establish  among  ourselves  a  covenant  which  shall  not  pass 
away.  Let  us  unite  our  forces  for  ever  higher  ends.  Let 
us  lay  down  for  ourselves  inviolable  laws  to  which  we 
shall  all  yield  unquestioning  obedience.  Let  us  regulate 
for  all  eternity  our  mutual  relations.  Let  us  give  up  our 
barren  independence  and  through  universal  interdepend- 
ence become  fruitful,  creative.  Let  the  act  of  one  always 
affect  the  others  in  a  certain  foreordained  way.  Let  us 
combine  and  grow  into  suns,  star-systems,  earths,  plants, 
animals,  and  at  last  flower  into  man,  who  shall  translate 


142 

our  elemental  compact  into  thought  and  call  our  unchange- 
able social  contract  the  universal  law  of  causality'? 

Surely,  the  indissoluble  unity  which  binds  all  atoms 
together  into  a  living  harmony,  the  immutable  laws  which 
hold  absolute  sway  over  them  all,  and  determine  with 
unfailing  precision  all  their  courses,  combinations,  dissolu- 
tions, evolutions,  give  proof  that  the  atoms  can  not  be 
separate  and  self-determined  entities,  that  they  can  not  be 
the  last  elements  of  existence.  There  can  be  but  one  con- 
clusion: Behind  all  atoms  there  is  one  universal  Reality, 
behind  all  special  forms  of  existence  there  is  one  all- 
enfolding  absolute  Existence;  behind  all  finite  beings  there 
is  one  infinite  Being.  All  forces  are  the  manifestations  of 
one  almighty  Force.  This  supreme  Reality,  this  infinite 
Essence  and  omnipotent  Power,  we  call  God.  All  the 
world-systems  are  borne  in  the  same  parental  arms  of  this 
one  creative  Force.  They  all  rest  as  children,  grown  or 
growing,  against  the  bosom  of  the  same  infinite  parent 
Power.  All  their  vital  energies  and  unfolding  lives  are 
but  incarnations  and  transformations  of  the  one  self- 
identical  Energy,  inscrutable,  all-sustaining,  all-quicken- 
ing, all-pervading.  All  atoms  and  aggregations  of  atoms 
must  obey  the  eternal  and  immutable  laws  of  the  universal 
Self,  because  they  are  indwelling  parts  of  it;  because  they 
live,  move,  and  have  their  being  in  it.  All  nature  pro- 
ceeds from  the  same  divine  Essence;  the  whole  Cosmos 
has  blossomed  forth  from  the  same  omnipotent  Energy. 
Hence  no  atom,  no  finite  part,  no  creature,  no  star  can 
separate  itself  from  the  identity  of  the  Almighty,  can  break 
away  from  the  immanent  modes  and  ways  of  infinite  Life. 
The  universal  reign  of  law  is  nothing  but  the  universal 
self-revelation  of  the  One  infinite  and  unchangeable  Power 
which  is  forever  at  one  with  itself.  The  universal  law  of 
causality  flows  from  the  identity  of  the  one  omnipresent 
and  omnipotent  Being.  The  unity  of  nature  springs  from, 
and  reflects,  the  unity  of  God. 


143 


III. 

Our  argument  has  so  far  led  us  only  to  the  necessary 
belief  in  a  universal,  self-existent  Essence,  to  the  idea  of 
an  infinite,  all-enfolding  divine  Unity,  to  the  conception  of 
an  almighty  Power  which  is  the  ultimate  cause  of  all  that 
is  and  happens.  The  truth  which  we  have  brought  into 
light  forms  the  first  broad  foundation  on  which  all  religion 
rests.  And  now  there  arises  the  most  far-reaching  of  all 
questions  and  presses  for  an  answer.  Is  the  infinite  and 
eternal  Essence,  the  supreme  Being,  the  omnipotent 
Power,  an  intelligent  Essence,  a  rational  Self,  or  is  it 
merely  an  irrational  entity,  a  blind  force?  It  is  clear  that 
we  could  not  adore  a  senseless  Power,  that  we  could  not 
love  a  Being  that  lacks  the  attribute  of  reason.  We  might 
stand  in  awe  and  dread  of  the  Universal  Power.  We  might 
at  times  crouch  in  abject  fear  before  the  manifestation  of 
its  deadly  terrors.  We  might  use  all  possible  means  to 
avoid  coming  into  conflict  with  the  inexorable  ways  of  the 
almighty  and  omnipresent  Being,  lest  we  be  crushed  by  a 
blow  dealt  us  by  its  outstretched  arm.  We  might  view 
with  speechless  wonder  the  multitudinous  forms  of  inani- 
mate and  animate  life  which  the  infinite  Being  assumes. 
We  might  with  eager  curiosity  try  to  discover  the  immut- 
able laws  which  govern  the  universe  from  center  to 
circumference.  But  we  could  not  worship  and  venerate 
that  Power.  We  could  not  bow  our  head  in  humility 
before  the  Infinite  as  being  higher  and  better  than  man. 
For  the  highest  and  noblest  kind  of  existence,  is  reason, 
the  divinest  reality  is  the  knowing  mind,  the  most  wor- 
shipful power  is  the  purposeful  will  realizing  the  ends  of 
goodness. 

If  the  Infinite  is  not  a  spiritual  Power,  we  are  shut  up 
to  materialism.  The  wings  of  faith  are  cut.  We  can  not 
escape  from  the  prison  of  self  and  commune  in  sorrow  and 
joy  with  the  general  Soul. 


144 

Now  what  proof  have  we  that  intelligence  is  a  quality 
of  the  universal  Essence,  that  the  all-generating,  all-sus- 
taining Power  is  a  conscious  Self?  My  answer  is:  The 
existence  of  thinking  and  willing  beings  on  our  planet,  the 
existence  of  consciousness  in  man,  gives  proof  that  the 
ground  of  all  existence  must  be  an  intelligent  Entity,  that 
the  almighty  Power,  of  which  our  minds  are  manifesta- 
tions, can  not  but  be  a  rational  Energy. 

Let  us  full  earnestly  consider  that  kind  of  existence 
which  we  call  Consciousness.  What  is  consciousness? 
What  a  question,  you  will  reply.  Consciousness  is  con- 
sciousness. This  is  the  only  term  by  which  it  can  be 
expressed.  It  is  the  only  definition  we  can  give  it.  Sen- 
sation, feeling,  perception,  thought,  are  names  denoting 
various  manifestations,  simple  or  complex,  of  the  same 
unique  phenomenon  of  consciousness.  It  is  absolutely 
unlike  any  form  of  material  being,  it  has  no  quality  in 
common  with  any  kind  of  external  existence.  For  this 
reason  consciousness  can  be  stated  only  to  be  what  it  is — 
consciousness;  to  be  identical  with  itself  only  and  to  have 
no  affinity  with  anything  else. 

But  is  it  indeed  impossible  to  compare  mind  with  some 
physical  reality,  be  it  matter  or  force?  Let  us  just  try. 
All  things  material  have  three  dimensions,  length,  breadth, 
and  height.  Suppose  you  ask,  How  long,  how  broad,  how 
high  is  consciousness?  Why,  you  will  say,  Not  even  a 
madman  can  conceive  such  a  question.  Right  enough :  Is 
consciousness  thick  or  thin,  hard  or  soft?  Is  it  in  a  solid, 
liquid,  or  gaseous  state?  Leave  us  alone,  you  will  cry, 
with  your  crazy  questions!  The  attributes  of  extension 
and  density  do  not  apply  to  mind.  Well,  we  take  note  of 
this  self-evident  fact  and  will  soon  make  use  of  it  in  our 
argument.  What  is  the  color  of  consciousness?  Is  it  white, 
black,  red,  green,  or  yellow?  Is  consciousness  warm  or  cold, 
sweet  or  bitter?  You  exclaim,  Stop  putting  to  us  such 
questions,  which  sound  like  the  gibberish  of  madness. 


145 

But  your  amazement,  your  vehement  protests,  simply  make 
it  as  clear  as  noonday  that  none  of  the  qualities  of  matter 
can  be  in  thought  ascribed  to  mind.  Now,  we  know  a 
thing,  a  being,  exclusively  by  its  qualities.  Since  mind 
and  matter  have  so  far  been  shown  to  have  no  quality  in 
common,  therefore  they  can  not  be  compared  with  each 
other,  they  can  not  be  placed  in  the  same  class.  Conse- 
quently they  can  not  be  of  the  same  essence  and  nature. 

Again,  consciousness  can  not  be  tasted  nor  smelled  nor 
touched   nor  seen  nor  heard.     The  five  senses  have   no 
access  to  it,  they  can  not  penetrate  to  it,  receive  impres- 
sions, combine  them  into  qualities,  and  by  such  operations 
inform  us  what  mind  is.     On  the  other  hand,  all  we  know 
of  matter,  of  the  world  external  to  us,  comes  to  us  as  a 
message  of  the  senses.    Without  the  senses  matter  of  every 
kind  and  form  would  be  absolutely  unknown  to  us,  the 
external  world   would  simply  have  no   existence  for  us. 
We  would  be  wholly  shut  up  within  our  self-consciousness. 
Again,  we  can  not  imagine  consciousness  to  be  identical 
with  force,  such  as  is  manifested  in  the  physical  universe. 
We  know  force  first  of  all  and  chiefly  as  motion  appearing 
in  moving  bodies.     Can  you  conceive  consciousness  as  a 
sort  of  motion?     I  appeal  to  your  own  inward  experience. 
Has   feeling,  willing,   thinking,   any  feature   in    common 
with  what  we  call  motion,  moving  from  place  to  place? 
Force   under   certain   given    conditions  is  changed  from 
motion  to  heat.    Can  you  realize  in  thought  that  conscious- 
ness is  nothing  but  a  form  of  heat?     Well,  force  reveals 
itself  also  as  electricity  and  magnetism.     Is  consciousness 
perhaps  a  species  of  electricity  or   magnetism?     Try  to 
think  it  out  this  very  moment.     Can  you  say  to  yourself: 
As  I  am  observing  my  consciousness,  I  feel  it  to  be  like  the 
electric  currents  in  a  battery  or  like  the  magnetic  force? 
Why,  your  mind  at  once  tells  you,  that  identification  is  an 
unthinkable  absurdity. 

You  have  the  direct  and  incontestable  testimony  of 
your  mind  that  consciousness  is  absolutely  unlike  both 


146 

matter  and  force.  Yet  consciousness  undoubtingly  exists. 
Your  own  self  is  consciousness.  Your  truest  and  inmost 
being  is  spirit  or  soul.  Whence  comes  our  conscious- 
ness? From  what  ground  did  consciousness  spring?  Our 
minds  form  part  of  the  universal  existence.  It  did  not 
rise  into  being  by  itself  and  through  itself.  Our  spirit 
must  have  its  origin  and  existence  in  the  universal  exist- 
ence. It  can  not  be  the  offspring  of  matter  and  motion  or 
force,  because  it  is  in  every  respect  different  from  them. 
Only  like  begets  its  like.  You  can  by  no  effort  of  imagina- 
tion or  thought  bring  yourself  to  realize  that  your  mind  is 
nothing  but  a  species  of  matter  or,  what  amounts  to  the 
same  thing,  a  product  of  matter.  You  are  absolutely 
unable  to  think  of  feeling  and  will  as  a  peculiar  form  of 
heat,  electricity,  or  motion.  On  this  head  Professor  Huxley 
writes  in  his  inimitable  style:  "It  seems  to  me  pretty 
plain,  that  there  is  a  third  thing  in  the  universe,  to  wit, 
consciousness,  which  in  the  hardness  of  my  heart  and  head 
I  can  not  see  to  be  matter,  or  force,  or  any  conceivable 
modification  of  either,  however  intimately  the  manifesta- 
tions of  the  phenomena  of  consciousness  may  be  connected 
with  the  phenomena  known  as  force." 

Since  consciousness  can  be  derived  from  neither  matter 
nor  force,  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion,  that  it  must 
have  its  ground  and  origin  in  something  which  is  like  it, 
namely,  in  a  superhuman  consciousness  or  a  universal 
mind.  Human  consciousness  can  not  have  sprung  into 
existence  out  of  nothing.  For  nothing  will  in  all  eternity 
bring  forth  nothing.  We  dare  not  say  that  mind  has  from 
eternity  to  eternity  existed  only  as  human  consciousness, 
as  spirit  in  man.  For  there  was  surely  a  time  when  the 
human  race  had  as  yet  no  existence.  There  was,  beyond  a 
doubt,  a  time,  when  the  earth  had  not  yet  been  formed  and 
become  a  fit  dwelling-place  for  rational  beings.  Mind 
must,  therefore,  have  existed  in  the  universe  before  the 
birth  of  animals  and  men  on  our  globe.  The  conclusion  is 


147 

thus  forced  upon  us  that  intelligence  is  an  eternal  reality. 
We  can  not  say  that  it  exists  only  as  an  isolated 
phenomenon  in  some  parts  of  the  universe  and  nowhere 
else.  For  the  universal  and  infinite  existence  is  one  being 
and  power,  forever  and  everywhere  identical  with  its  own 
self;  it  would,  therefore  be  the  height  of  absurdity  to 
ascribe  consciousness  to  only  a  part  of  the  Infinite,  seeing 
that  the  Infinite  consists  of  no  separate  parts  but  is  an 
absolute,  self-identical  Unity,  all  whose  manifestations  are 
revelations  of  its  hidden  essence,  and  self-hood.  The 
infinite  and  eternal  Existence  and  Power,  whom  we  call 
God,  is  thus  shown  to  be  a  conscious  Being  or  a  universal 
Intelligence,  the  fountain-head  of  all  consciousness  in  finite 
existence.  The  conclusion  of  the  matter,  then:  The 
Eternal  is  a  spiritual  Being. 


IV. 

The  argument  has,  however,  not  yet  fully  satisfied  you. 
Your  doubts  have  not  yet  been  completely  dispelled.  The 
greatest  of  all  difficulties  is  still  obstructing  your  path 
towards  a  rational  belief  in  an  intelligent  supreme  Power. 
How  can  we  possibly  believe  in  a  universal  mindlike 
Being?  How  can  mind  exist  without  a  nervous  system, 
without  a  brain?  All  mind-life,  which  we  know  of,  appears 
in  connection  with  nerves,  and  the  most  highly-developed 
intelligence  is  indissolubly  bound  up  with  the  central  organ 
of  the  nervous  system,  the  brain.  If  you  destroy  a  man's 
brain,  his  mind  manifests  its  existence  in  no  manner  what- 
ever. Let  a  man's  brain  be  seriously  injured,  and  he 
becomes  a  maniac  or  will  sink  into  a  state  of  death-like 
sleep.  When  the  heart  ceases  to  beat  and  no  longer  sends 
the  current  of  vitalizing  blood  to  the  brain,  the  body  dies 
and  with  it  the  mind  seems  to  vanish  into  nothing.  How, 
then,  are  we  to  believe  that  the  supreme  Being  is  a  con- 
scious entity?  For  the  blasphemous  idea  must  of  course 


148 

be  ruled  out,  that  there  is  somewhere  in  the  world  a 
gigantic  divine  brain  communicating  with  every  part  of 
the  universe  by  means  of  an  all-pervading  nervous  system. 

To  minds  not  trained  in  philosophical  thinking,  to 
minds  not  accustomed  to  rise  above  the  analogies  of  sense- 
experience,  these  objections  appear  fatal  to  the  belief  in  a 
conscious,  absolute,  and  infinite  Being.  They  are  the  main 
considerations,  why  so  many  men  who  implicitly  trust  their 
own  rough  and  ready  judgments  regarding  what  is  possible 
or  impossible,  have  to  their  own  hearts'  grief  come  to 
imagine  that  they  do  not  believe  in  God. 

It  is  a  mistake  that  the  manifestations  of  feeling  and 
will  are  absolutely  dependent  on  that  peculiar  organization 
of  matter  called  nerves.  There  are  innumerable  forms  of 
exceedingly  small  animate  beings,  termed  microbes,  which 
do  not  show  the  faintest  trace  of  nerves.  They  possess  no 
organs  internal  and  external  of  any  kind.  Yet  these  tiny 
structureless  and  nerveless  creatures  plainly  exhibit  the 
phenomena  of  feeling  and  willing.  They  pursue  their 
prey,  seize  and  devour  it.  They  become  aware  of  danger 
and  try  to  escape  from  it.  By  such  and  similar  actions 
they  give  unmistakable  evidence  of  discerning  and  voli- 
tional impulses.  These  facts  clearly  prove  that  feeling 
and  willing  which  are  the  web  and  woof  of  all  mind-life 
can  exist  without  any  nervous  apparatus.  If  nerves  and 
brain  were  the  absolute  condition  and  ultimate  cause  of  all 
mental  phenomena,  the  existence  of  sentient  creatures 
devoid  of  nerves  and  brain  would  be  an  utter  impossibility. 
But  you  will  object  and  say:  "Those  creatures  lowest  in 
the  scale  of  animate  life  display  but  the  dimmest  and  most 
shadowy  beginnings  of  feeling  and  willing.  All  developed 
intelligence,  all  consciousness  deserving  that  name,  is 
invariably  found  in  closest  connection  with  a  brain.  The 
more  highly  developed  a  creature's  brain,  the  greater  is  its 
mentality.  The  intelligence  of  man  is  immeasurably 
superior  to  that  of  all  other  living  beings,  just  because  his 


149 

brain  is  more  perfect,  more  finely  organized  than  theirs. 
If  the  world-ground  is  intelligent,  it  must  be  mind  of  the 
highest  kind,  infinitely  superior  to  the  human  mind.  But 
how  can  we  reconcile  the  belief  in  a  universal  intelligence 
with  the  facts  of  experience  which  tell  us,  that  there  is  no 
consciousness  without  a  brain?" 

To  this  I  reply:  If  the  brain  could  ever  be  shown  to 
explain  the  existence  of  consciousness,  your  reasoning 
would  have  some  force.  If  science  could  ever  demonstrate, 
how  matter  organized  as  brain  brings  forth  mind  out  of 
what  is  not  itself  mind,  there  would  be  some  show  of 
reason  for  asserting  that  the  brain  is  the  parent  cause  of 
consciousness  and  hence  that  mental  life  is  impossible 
where  the  assumed  creative  force  is  absent.  But  will  the 
most  minute  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  structure  and 
composition  of  the  brain  ever  enable  us  to  say:  "We 
clearly  see  and  observe,  how  the  brain  manufactures 
thought.  There  is  no  longer  any  mystery  about  the  origin 
and  nature  of  mind"?  Suppose  we  should  even  succeed  in 
fixing  upon  the  exact  spot  and  the  special  cells  of  the 
brain  in  which  each  particular  thought  takes  its  rise. 
Suppose  science  should  one  day  be  able  to  make  visible  to 
the  eye  every  wave  and  tremor  in  the  brain  substance 
accompanying  every  thought.  Suppose  physiology  should 
one  day  bring  into  clear  view  the  peculiar  set  of  molecular 
and  chemical  changes  which  occur  in  the  substances  of  the 
brain,  while  a  certain  set  of  ideas  is  passing  through  the 
mind.  Still  such  knowledge  would  in  no  way  explain  the 
existence  of  consciousness.  It  would  in  no  possible  man- 
ner show,  how  the  molecules  of  matter  making  up  the 
brain  can  produce  mind  which  is  absolutely  unlike  matter. 
For  the  brain  is  after  all  no  more  nor  less  than  highly 
organized  matter.  Over  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  brain  sub- 
stance is  made  up  of  the  elements  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen, 
which,  chemically  combined,  form  water.  Nitrogen,  sul- 
phur, carbon,  iron,  and  other  elements  are  the  materials 


out  of  which  an  inscrutable  Power  has  builded  the  glorious 
dwelling  of  the  mind,  the  brain.  Now,  we  have  shown 
that  consciousness  can  not  be  identified  with  matter  and 
motion,  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  mind  as  a 
modification  or  product  of  either.  Matter  in  the  form  of 
brain  still  remains  matter.  It  can  not  transcend  its  essence 
and  quality  and  be  changed  from  what  matter  is  through- 
out the  universe,  and  by  virtue  of  organization  give  birth 
to  mind.  Since,  then,  the  brain  does  not  explain  the  exist- 
ence of  consciousness  and  can  not  be  regarded  as  the 
generating  source  of  mind,  we  have  no  right  to  hold  that 
under  no  possible  conditions  can  consciousness  exist  with- 
out a  brain,  and  that  consequently  the  infinite  ground  of 
being  can  not  be  believed  to  be  intelligent.  All  that  we 
may  say  is  that  under  the  given  terrestrial  conditions,  as 
far  as  we  know,  intelligence  of  the  higher  kind  invariably 
appears  in  closest  connection  and  interaction  with  a  brain, 
that  the  finite  human  mind,  while  incarnate  in  a  body, 
manifests  itself  through  the  agency  of  a  complete  nervous 
system  centered  in  a  brain.  But  our  sense-bound  experi- 
ence does  not  justify  us  in  laying  it  down  as  a  universal 
and  absolute  law,  that  it  is  impossible  for  mind  to  exist 
outside  of  a  brain. 

Our  experience  alone  does  not  suffice  to  decide  with 
apodictic  certainty  what  is  possible  and  what  is  impossible. 
How  shall  we  determine  that  something  is  absolutely 
impossible?  Innumerable  things  for  ages  have  been 
universally  believed  to  be  impossible  which  a  larger 
experience  has  proved  to  be  possible.  To  talk  and  be 
heard  at  a  distance  of  thousands  of  miles,  but  a  few  years 
ago  seemed  to  be  an  impossibility.  Yet  the  telephone  has 
made  it  possible.  To  catch  the  dread  force  of  electricity, 
to  make  it  carry  man's  message  from  one  end  of  the  earth 
to  the  other  with  incredible  swiftness,  to  harness  light- 
ning like  a  horse  to  our  wagon,  to  make  it  light  up  our 
houses  and  streets,  to  heat  up  our  dwellings  and  cook  our 


meals,  till  recent  times  was  deemed  utterly  impossible. 
In  Columbus'  time  no  human  being  considered  it  possible 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  in  iron  ships,  in  less  than  six  days, 
without  the  use  of  sails.  In  biblical  times  it  was  held 
impossible  to  measure  the  earth  and  weigh  it  in  balances. 
In  our  days  the  length,  height,  and  depth,  the  weight  and 
density  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  every  planet  are  perfectly 
well  known.  Spectroscopy  has  in  our  days  made  possible 
what  two  centuries  ago  was  regarded  as  a  self-evident 
impossibility.  The  human  mind  can  nowadays  ascertain 
with  scientific  exactness  the  number  and  nature  of  the 
atomic  elements  present  not  only  in  our  sun  but  in  the 
remotest  stars,  whose  light  travels  six  thousand  years 
before  reaching  our  globe.  The  idea  of  changing  air  into 
a  liquid  and  even  turning  it  into  a  solid  till  recent  times 
was  denied  by  the  strongest  evidence  of  experience.  Yet 
the  testimony  of  experience,  so  long  accepted  with  unques- 
tioning faith  by  all  men,  in  these  days  of  ours  has  proved 
to  be  fallacious.  According  to  the  data  of  our  given 
experience  it  is  impossible  to  transform  coal,  stones,  and 
other  materials  into  food  for  man  and  animals.  Yet  the 
science  of  chemistry,  which  is  still  in  its  infancy,  will 
probably  one  day  be  able  to  change  inorganic  matter  into 
organic  means  of  subsistence.  Countless  other  things  which 
are  now  universally  believed  to  be  beyond  the  range  of 
possibility,  one  day  will  come  to  be  well-known  realities 
exciting  as  little  surprise  as  the  telegraph  and  telephone. 

What,  then,  is  eternally  and  absolutely  impossible? 
That  which  is  absolutely  unthinkable,  which  is  an  irrecon- 
cilable contradiction  to  the  indestructible  categories  of  our 
mind.  That  is  a  priori  impossible  which  is  at  war  with 
the  inborn  ideas  of  the  soul.  The  most  fundamental  of 
these  innate  ideas  is:  It  is  impossible  for  anything  to 
spring  from  nothing.  The  law  of  universal  causality,  the 
necessary  belief  that  nothing  can  exist  or  happen  without 
a  sufficient  cause,  is  but  another  expression  of  the  same 
innate  idea.  Hence,  it  is  an  absolute  impossibility  that 


152 

matter  in  any  imaginable  form,  matter  in  the  guise  of  nerve 
and  brain,  should  be  the  parent  cause  of  mind.  Matter 
having  no  quality  whatever  in  common  with  thought,  the 
rise  of  consciousness  out  of  it  would  be  a  new  creation  out 
of  nothing,  which  is  unthinkable. 

Still  both  matter  and  mind  exist.  Neither  can  be 
identified  with  the  other,  nor  can  they  be  derived  from  each 
other.  The  two  worlds,  the  inner  world  of  consciousness 
and  the  external  world  of  objects,  seem  to  fall  apart.  In 
spite  of  their  intimate  relations  and  interactions  these  two 
eternal  forms  of  existence  seem  separated  by  a  yawning 
chasm  with  no  bridge  leading  from  one  to  the  other.  They 
face  each  other  as  irreconcilable  contrasts.  Materialism 
can  by  no  tricks  of  sophistical  reasoning  drive  mind  from 
its  position  as  a  self-existing  entity.  Idealism  can  not  deny 
matter  and  prove  it  to  be  a  mere  illusion.  But  the  human 
mind  can  not  rest  in  such  dualism.  The  soul  finds  no 
peace  in  a  world  divided  in  itself.  The  very  root  of  all 
knowledge  is  the  indestructible  and  immediate  belief  that 
the  universe  forms  a  unity,  that  the  soul  is  co-related  to 
the  world  in  all  its  parts,  that  all  being  is  of  one  source,  of 
one  essence,  of  one  energy.  The  very  ground  of  all 
knowledge  is  the  innate  belief  that  behind  the  inner  world 
of  consciousness,  and  behind  the  phenomena  of  the  world 
of  objects,  there  is  Divine  Unity  in  which  they  are  both 
embraced  and  in  which  their  differences  are  reconciled  and 
disappear.  This  belief  in  an  all-pervading  and  all-enfold- 
ing Unity  which  binds  together  matter  and  mind  in  a 
supreme  harmony,  underlies  all  thought  This  one  Being 
reveals  Himself  as  nature,  and  manifests  Himself  and  is 
present  in  us  as  mind.  In  Him  we  live,  move,  and  have 
our  being.  Yet  He  transcends  both  the  human  mind  and 
nature.  He  is  infinite  and  absolute.  He  is  not  circum- 
scribed by  the  conditions  within  which  matter  exists.  He 
is  not  circumscribed  by  the  limitations  which  bound  our 
intelligence. 


WHY  I  AM  A  JEW. 


'  I  ^HE  very  fact  that  the  question,  why  I  am  a  Jew,  can  be 
*•  put  at  all,  conclusively  proves  that  to  be  a  Jew,  in  the 
deepest  sense  of  the  word,  does  not  mean  to  belong  to  the 
alleged  Jewish  race  or  nationality,  but  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Jewish  church.  For  it  would  be  considered  sheer  mad- 
ness, say,  for  a  Frenchman  or  a  Spaniard  to  rise  and  explain 
why  he  is  a  Frenchman  or  a  Spaniard,  Once  a  Frenchman, 
always  a  Frenchman ;  one  born  of  Spanish  parents  forever 
remains  a  Spaniard  by  the  indestructible  law  of  his  phys- 
ical identity.  But  one  may  change  his  religion  and  go 
over  from  one  church  to  another.  A  Buddhist  may  become 
a  Christian;  a  Christian  may  embrace  Islam  or  be  converted 
to  Judaism  or  to  any  other  religion.  By  changing  his 
faith  the  Englishman  does  not  break  away  from  his  En- 
glish nationality  nor  from  his  assumed  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
In  asking  me  why  I  am  a  Jew,  you  do  consciously  or 
unconsciously  imply  that  I  am  a  Jew  of  my  own  free  will 
and  accord,  and  that  I  might  choose  not  to  be  a  Jew  if  I 
had  a  mind  to.  The  fact  is,  the  moment  a  Jew  embraces 
Christianity,  or  any  other  religion,  he  ceases  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  to  be  a  Jew.  His  own  father  and  mother 
no  longer  regard  him  as  a  Jew,  though  they  continue  to 
love  him  as  a  son  and  to  respect  him  as  a  man. 

The  question  is,  therefore,  perfectly  pertinent.  Why 
am  I  a  Jew?  Why  do  I  not  embrace  Christianity,  the 
religion  of  the  leading  nations  of  the  earth,  the  religion 
of  the  most  powerful,  the  most  civilized  and  progressive 
portion  of  mankind?  Why  do  I  cling  to  Yahvism,  the 
faith  of  the  powerless,  ever-struggling  minority  ?  Why  do 
I  hold  fast  to  the  religion  of  the  Jews,  who  are  disfran- 
chised and  persecuted  in  many  Christian  lands  and  regarded 


with  inveterate  prejudice  and  not  a  little  contempt  almost 
everywhere  ?  If  I  were  to  join  with  my  family  any  Chris- 
tian church,  it  surely  would  not  be  to  our  worldly  disad- 
vantage. We  would  be  received  with  open  arms.  The 
Christian  pulpits  would  ring  with  hosannas  and  praises. 
All  social  barriers  would  fall  as  if  by  magic.  We,  too, 
would  belong  to  the  proud  and  powerful  majority.  I,  too, 
might  speak  with  unctuous  pity  of  the  deadening  legalism 
of  Judaism,  with  infinite  self-satisfaction  haul  the  Phari- 
sees over  the  coals,  and  with  upturned  eyes  pray  to  God  to 
open  the  ears  of  the  deaf  Jews  to  the  message  of  the  cross. 
I,  too,  might  in  the  pulpit  and  in  my  writings  descant  with 
swelling  pride  on  our  Christian  civilization,  expatiate  on 
the  infinite  superiority  of  the  ethics  and  ideals  of  Chris- 
tianity, call  and  claim  as  Christian  everything  that  is  true, 
good,  and  beautiful  in  the  life  of  humanity,  and  identify 
my  little  self  with  the  greatest  spiritual  power  in  the 
world.  Yet  I  forego,  of  my  own  deliberate  choice,  all  these 
advantages  and  prerogatives  and  continue  to  be  a  faithful 
Jew.  For  what  cogent  reasons,  then,  am  I  a  Jew  ? 

First  of  all,  I  am  a  Jew  because  I  believe  in  one  only 
God,  because  I  believe  in  the  absolute  and  indivisible  unity 
of  the  Supreme  Being.  I  can  not,  by  any  effort  of  thought, 
imagination,  or  will,  bring  myself  to  believe  in  the  Trinity, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  I  can  not  embrace 
Christianity  because  the  idea  of  a  Triune  God,  of  three 
persons  in  one  and  one  in  three,  simply  staggers  my  intel- 
ligence. It  is  as  little  comprehensible  to  me  as  the  wildest 
dreams  of  one  delirious  with  fever  or  the  coruscations  of  a 
mind  smitten  with  madness.  I  certainly  mean  no  offense 
to  my  trinitarian  fellow-men,  whose  intellectual  powers  are 
as  sane  and  strong  as  those  of  the  Jews.  Those  impregnated 
from  their  early  childhood  with  the  dogmas  of  trinitarian 
Christianity,  no  doubt,  experience  little  difficulty  in  believ- 
ing that  the  assumed  three  Divine  Persons  form  an  absolute 
unity.  The  mind  of  man  is  wonderfully  and  fearfully 


made.  It  will  continue  to  harbor  through  the  years  of 
intellectual  maturity  irreconcilable  contradictions,  abso- 
lutely antagonistic  beliefs,  if  they  are  but  implanted  in  the 
soul  before  the  logical  faculties  have  fully  developed  and 
become  dominant,  and  before  the  intelligence  has  begun 
rigorously  to  apply  the  categories  of  reason  to  all  given 
ideas.  When  such  a  mind  emerges  from  the  early  state 
of  passive  receptivity,  it  finds  the  belief  in  the  Trinity 
deeply  inwrought  in  its  very  constitution,  almost  indissol- 
ubly  interwoven  with  all  moral  ideas  and  ideals,  inter- 
twined with  the  sweet  hopes  of  immortality,  blended  with 
the  noblest  spiritual  aspirations.  Then  a  fierce  struggle 
begins  in  most  Christian  souls  between  faith  and  reason. 
Only  a  comparatively  small  number  comes  to  end  the  inner 
struggle  by  dissolving  the  associations  of  ideas  between 
the  belief  in  the  Triune  God  and  all  the  elements  of 
religion  and  ethics.  It  is  with  a  bleeding  heart  that  they 
break  away  from  the  cherished  belief  of  the  church,  hal- 
lowed by  innumerable  tender  memories  of  childhood  and 
home.  But  the  vast  majority  of  Christians  wrestle  on 
bravely,  and  at  last  come  forth  victorious  over  all  perplex- 
ing doubts.  They  find  rest  in  the  teachings  of  Christian 
apologetics  that  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  though  the 
highest  truth,  is  yet  an  unfathomable  and  insoluble  mys- 
tery, which  the  soul  must  accept  with  unquestioning  faith. 
What  man  is  infallible  ?  Maybe  the  belief  that  three  per- 
sons make  up  the  Divine  unity  is  a  supreme  transcend- 
ental truth.  But  we  Jews  are  absolutely  unable  to  give 
it  lodgment  in  our  mind.  Were  I  seriously  to  strive  to 
believe  in  a  Triune  God,  it  would  wreck  my  mind  and  land 
me  in  a  madhouse.  If  the  Jews  could  bring  themselves 
to  believe  in  the  Holy  Trinity  and  in  the  other  dogmas 
flowing  from  that  central  Christian  belief,  all  would  be 
well  with  them.  There  would  be  an  end  to  the  agony  of 
ages,  an  end  to  the  martyrdom  of  body  and  soul,  an  end  to 
calumny  and  isolation.  By  suffering  baptism,  we  would 


156 

dive  down  into  the  stream  of  the  nations,  the  waves  would 
swallow  up  our  identity,  Israel  would  be  but  a  name  and  a 
memory. 

As  the  hart  longs  after  water  brooks,  so  does  the  soul 
of  the  Jew  long  after  peace  and  union.  But  we  will  not 
purchase  peace  and  union  at  the  price  of  humanity's  dear- 
est possession,  at  the  price  of  prophetic  universal  mono- 
theism, without  tinge  and  taint.  Our  souls  are  chained 
by  ties  unbreakable  to  the  fiery  chariot  of  ethical,  historical 
monotheism.  We  must  go  with  it,  though  it  lead  us 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  and  the  world's 
contempt.  The  will  of  Yahve  compels  us  to  proclaim, 
"Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Eternal,  our  God,  the  Eternal  is  One." 
His  power  is  upon  us,  fastening  upon  our  conscience  and 
mind  the  mission  of  monotheism  which  we  can  not  shake 
off.  His  word  is  in  us  strong  as  death,  and  we  must  obey  it, 
even  to  our  hurt.  We  still  hear  the  voice  of  His  prophet : 
"  Ye  are  my  witnesses  that  I  am  He,  I  am  the  Eternal, 
and  beside  Me  there  is  no  Saviour.  Ye  are  my  witnesses 
that  I  am  God,  and  beside  Me  there  is  none  else."  Not 
simply  for  our  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  world,  and  in 
particular  of  the  Christian  world,  do  we  hold  fast  to  the 
mission  of  being  witnesses  to  the  absolute  unity  of  God. 
Trinitarian  Christianity  is  ever  in  danger  of  degenerating 
unconsciously  into  polytheism.  To  realize  the  three  dis- 
tinct Divine  Persons  as  one  Being  is  a  tremendous  strain 
on  the  Christian  rnind.  The  intelligence,  under  the  sway 
of  the  logical  categories,  is  constantly  tried  to  break  up  in 
consciousness  the  Triune  God  into  a  triad  of  divinities, 
whereby  Christianity  would  cease  to  be  a  monotheistic 
religion.  The  religion  of  Israel,  the  ever  present  church 
of  Yahve,  serves  the  Christians  as  a  warning  against  the 
insidious  polytheistic  tendency,  and  stimulates  the  Chris- 
tian mind  to  lay  the  utmost  emphasis  on  the  unity  of  God. 
Without  the  Jew,  who  is  the  living  witness  of  uncompro- 
mising monotheism,  the  Christians  would  be  less  on  their 


157 

guard  against  the  danger  lurking  in  the  dogma  of  the  Trin- 
ity, and  might,  as  in  the  darkest  days  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
drift  more  and  more  in  the  direction  of  polytheism.  For 
rendering  them  this  service  the  Christians  owe  gratitude 
to  us  Jews. 

I  am  a  Jew  because  I  can  not  accept  the  Christian 
scheme  of  salvation  and  incarnation;  my  soul  shrinks 
from  it  in  dread  and  awe.  The  idea  of  God,  the  absolute 
and  infinite,  assuming  the  flesh  and  form  of  man,  being  a 
babe  at  His  mother's  breast,  passing  through  the  stage  of 
childhood,  growing  to  the  stature  of  manhood,  eating, 
drinking,  fasting,  thirsting,  sleeping,  weeping  and  laugh- 
ing like  a  man,  the  idea  of  God  Almighty  being  scourged, 
nailed  to  the  cross,  and  dying  like  a  mortal  man,  is  not 
only  unthinkable,  unimaginable,  and  unbelievable  to  me, 
but  a  denial  of  what  is  to  Israelites  the  very  essence  of 
religion.  God  is  not  a  man  nor  the  son  of  man.  He  is 
not  born  of  woman  nor  does  He  suffer  and  die  like  a  mortal. 
I  know  there  are  myriads  of  Christians  who  are  wiser  and 
better  than  I,  to  whom  the  incarnation  is  the  be-all  of  their 
faith,  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end  of  their  theology. 
But  it  is  just  because  I  can  not  believe  with  them  in  the 
mystery  of  the  incarnation  that  I  am  a  Jew. 

I  am  a  Jew  because  I  do  not  and  can  not  believe  in  the 
Christian  dogma  of  the  fall  of  man,  of  original  sin,  of 
vicarious  atonement,  of  redemption  through  the  blood  of 
Jesus.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  human  race  fell  through 
the  alleged  sin  of  Adam  from  the  state  of  moral  perfec- 
tion and  blessedness.  The  story  of  the  Bible  merely  states 
in  a  mythical  form  that  there  existed  neither  physical  nor 
moral  good  and  evil  as  long  as  the  mind  of  man  was  in 
the  state  of  happy,  because  ignorant,  infancy.  I  am  a  Jew 
because  for  the  life  of  me  I  can  not  believe  that  an  all- 
good  and  all- just  God  decreed  that  the  sin  of  the  first  man, 
if  sin  it  was,  should  descend  as  a  moral  blight  and  inex- 
tinguishable curse  to  all  his  descendants.  I  am  a  Jew 


158 

because  the  idea  is  abhorrent  to  me  that  the  all-merciful 
God  found  no  other  way  to  appease  His  unrighteous  anger 
save  by  means  of  a  great  sacrifice,  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
God-man,  the  son  of  God,  the  second  person  in  the  Trin- 
ity. To  my  benighted  Jewish  mind  this  dogma  appears  a 
ghastly  travesty  on  the  idea  of  divine  justice  and  mercy. 
Yet  among  those  who  hold  this  belief  are  godly  and  holy 
men  whose  shoe-strings  I  am  unworthy  of  loosening. 
Maybe  their  theory  of  divine  government  is  true.  But  I 
can  not  worship  such  a  God.  I  would  rather  walk  in  the 
darkness  of  unbelief.  I  would  rather  be  crushed  by  His 
power  for  rebelling  than  bend  my  knee  to  a  God  whom  I 
can  not  adore  as  just  and  merciful. 

I  am  a  Jew  because  I  can  not  believe  in  the  miracu- 
lous power  of  Jesus,  be  he  a  man  or  a  God,  to  redeem  men 
from  the  evils  of  ancestral  sins  and  from  the  effects  of 
their  own  guilt.  I  believe  in  atonement  through  repent- 
ance, through  change  of  heart  and  conduct.  But  vicarious 
atonement  is  to  my  mind  mere  religious  magic.  I  wish  I 
could  indulge  in  such  pleasant  hopes.  It  is  an  easy  way 
of  getting  rid  of  sins  by  letting  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
atone  for  them.  But  I  can  not  entertain  such  a  belief.  I 
am  responsible  to  my  conscience  and  my  God  for  my  sins. 
No  mediator  stands  between  my  soul  and  my  Maker,  to 
obtain  pardon  for  me  through  his  influnce  and  merit.  Face 
to  face  I  stand  with  the  majesty  of  my  Judge  and  Law- 
giver, and  between  Him  and  me  there  is  no  other  Saviour. 
I  bear  the  burden  of  my  sins  and  accept  the  consequences 
thereof,  I  hear  His  warning  and  judging  voice  in  my  con- 
science, and  His  mercy  is  revealed  in  the  thousand  responses 
of  my  heart.  I  am  a  Jew  because  I  can  not  believe  in  the 
strangest  of  all  miracles  that  the  wine  and  the  bread  taken  at 
the  communion  table  are  turned  in  the  worshiper  into  the 
blood  and  the  flesh  of  Jesus.  This  dogma  is  authoritatively 
taught  by  the  Catholic  church  as  well  as  by  some  Protest- 
ant churches.  I  am  a  Jew  because  I  can  not  believe  with 


159 

the  Christians  that  there  is  no  salvation  for  those  who  deny 
Jesus,  who  have  no  faith  in  the  atoning  power  of  his 
blood  and  death.  I  am  a  Jew  because  I  do  not  believe  that 
salvation  here  and  hereafter  depends  on  baptism  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  a  Jew  because  I  believe  that 
the  righteous  live  by  their  own  faith,  justice,  and  mercy, 
and  the  wicked  perish  through  their  own  moral  degrada- 
tion and  sin. 

Many  will  doubtless  say :  "  Why,  you  are  identifying 
Christianity  with  exploded  dogmas  in  which  few  educated 
people  really  believe  in  our  day.  They  are  officially  and 
perfunctorily  paraded  in  articles  of  creed,  in  order  not  to 
break  up  the  historical  continuity  of  Christianity.  The 
Christian  religion  does  not  consist  in  the  dogmas  of  the 
trinity,  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  the  incarnation,  the  resurrec- 
tion, and  vicarious  atonement.  These  dogmas  are  but  the 
historical  trappings  and  temporary  symbols  in  which  the 
Christian  idea  has  inadequately  expressed  itself.  The  abid- 
ing essence  of  Christianity  consists  in  the  ideal  character 
and  life  of  Jesus  and  his  sublime  ethical  teaching."  To 
this  I  make  bold  to  reply  :  Christianity  without  the  trin- 
ity, without  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  without  the  incarnation 
and  vicarious  atonement,  Christianity  stripped  of  all  its 
distinctive  characteristics,  is  nothing  but  the  universal 
religion  of  Yahve,  such  as  was  conceived  and  proclaimed 
by  the  greatest  prophets  and  wisest  teachers  of  Israel, 
among  whom  I  count  and  reverence  the  immortal  prophet 
and  teacher  of  Nazareth.  Christianity  without  a  Chris- 
tian dogma  is  not  the  religion  of  the  genuine  historical 
Christian  churches.  It  is  the  universal  faith  which  is  usu- 
ally named  Judaism.  It  is  what  I  call  Yahvism  in  order  to 
dissociate  it  in  consciousness  from  the  element  of  the 
race.  It  is  the  universal  religion  of  broad  humanity,  of 
justice,  of  love  and  holiness.  It  is  the  religion  of  Moses, 
of  Amos,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Hillel,  and  Jesus.  It  is  the 
ethical  monotheism  of  Israel  without  the  limitations  and 


i6o 

the  trammels  of  race,  without  the  yoke  of  ceremonial  law. 
It  is  the  religion  which  I  and  all  enlightened  rabbis  pro- 
fess and  teach. 

But  do  not  the  new  moral  ideas  and  ideals  of  Jesus,  with- 
out the  dogmas  of  the  incarnation,  the  resurrection,  and 
vicarious  atonement,  constitute  an  essentially  new  religion, 
distinct  from  Yahvism,  superior  to  it  in  every  respect? 
By  no  means,  I  answer.  The  teachings  of  Jesus  are  abso- 
lutely identical  in  their  general  principles,  as  well  as  in 
their  special  applications,  with  those  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  Talmud.  There  is  no  moral  idea,  no  moral  ideal, 
in  the  New  Testament  which  is  not  inculcated  with  all 
possible  emphasis,  and  proclaimed  with  glowing  enthusi- 
asm, in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Talmud.  There  is  not 
a  moral  saying  of  Jesus,  no  ethical  truth  preached  by  him, 
that  we  Israelites  do  not  accept  with  all  our  heart  and  all 
our  soul,  and  try  to  live  up  to.  There  is  no  doubt  with  us 
that  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  is  nothing  but  the  quintes- 
sence of  the  highest  biblical  ethics  and  the  finest  essence  of 
the  still  more  highly-developed  morality  of  the  post-biblical 
masters,  presented  with  sublime  pathos  and  heart-bewitching 
power  by  a  great  soul.  There  is  no  new  revelation  to  us 
Israelites  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  no  step  is  made 
therein  beyond  the  prophets'  lofty  ideals  of  love,  charity, 
humility,  and  piety  as  taught  by  the  rabbis,  the  predeces- 
sors and  contemporaries  of  Jesus.  But  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  a  glorious  summary  and  incomparable  presenta- 
tion of  the  moral  and  religious  ideas  and  ideals  which  the 
spirit  of  God,  through  fifteen  centuries,  slowly  and  steadily, 
with  ever-increasing  power  and  light,  had  been  unfolding 
through  the  soul  of  Israel.  And  that  soul  of  Israel,  the 
prophetic,  God-seeking,  God-loving  soul,  which  wholly 
consecrates  itself  to  Him  by  loving  all  His  children,  by 
meting  out  to  all  human  beings  the  fullest  measure  of  just- 
ice, by  pouring  out  the  rich  streams  of  loving-kindness 
unto  all  men  without  distinction  of  race  or  creed;  that 


soul  of  Israel  was  stirring  with  might  and  dwelling 
with  radiant  beauty  in  the  breast  of  the  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary,  and  expressed  itself  with  majestic  eloquence  and 
heart-conquering  grace  and  simplicity  in  his  sermons,  his 
parables,  and,  above  all,  in  his  pure  and  holy  life.  We 
Israelites  claim  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  our  own,  as  one  of  our 
best  and  greatest  masters,  as  one  of  our  immortal  fathers, 
as  one  of  our  saintliest  heroes  of  righteousness  and  love. 
Whatever  crimes  have  been  committed  against  us  by  cruel 
and  misguided  men  in  his  name,  verily  we  do  not  charge 
him  with  them.  Those  blind  and  heartless  fanatics  did 
not  learn  cruelty  from  him,  the  teacher  of  love.  Surely 
the  example  of  the  meek  and  lowly  rabbi  of  Galilee,  who 
taught  with  the  prophets  and  teachers  of  Israel  to  suffer 
persecution  and  not  to  persecute,  did  not  inspire  the  zealots 
with  the  fury  and  madness  of  persecution.  We  claim  the 
ethical  teachings  of  Jesus,  as  preserved  in  the  Gospels,  as 
our  own  spiritual  possession. 

Still,  my  holding  Jesus  in  profoundest  veneration,  my 
enthusiasm  for  his  sublime  teachings,  does  not  make  me  a 
Christian.  Just  as  little  are  those  Gentiles  true  Christians 
who,  like  me,  deny  his  divinity  and  all  the  beliefs  which 
cohere  with  that  cardinal  dogma.  I  make  bold  to  express 
my  humble  opinion  that  the  true  Unitarian  church  is  a 
section  or  sect  of  the  universal  church  of  Yahvism,  within 
which  Jesus  lived,  moved,  and  had  his  being,  and  of  whose 
truths  and  ideals  he  was  a  glorious  exponent.  But  why 
do  I  not  join  the  Unitarians,  with  whom  I  agree  in  most 
essentials  of  faith  and  practice?  My  answer  is :  A  large 
wing  of  the  Unitarians  still  coquette  with  the  peculiar 
dogmas  of  Christianity.  There  is  a  wonderful  magic  in 
historical  words  and  names.  They  tend  to  draw  men  back 
to  their  former  contents.  The  world  still  needs  the  ancient 
historical  church  of  uncompromising  prophetic  monothe- 
ism. For  God's  sake,  for  mankind's  sake,  we  can  not 
renounce  the  mission  of  standing  guard  around  the  ark  of 


l62 

monotheism  intrusted  to  us  by  the  seers  and  martyrs  of 
Israel.     For  this  reason  I  am  a  Jew,  and  not  a  Unitarian. 

One  more  reason  I  shall  give  for  being  a  Jew,  and  I 
shall  have  done :    The  Gentiles  who  have  totally  discarded 
Christianity  and,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  are  at  one 
with  us  in  faith,  shrink  from  identifying  themselves  with 
poor,  despised,  scattered,  and  maligned    Israel.     They  are 
afraid  of  losing  caste  by  being  named  together  with  the 
Jews  as  associates  in  the  same  church.     But  I  am  a  Jew 
for  that  very  reason  that  the  Jews  are  in  all  Christian  lands 
under  the  ban  of  social  prejudice,  and  are  in  many  king- 
doms disfranchised  and  oppressed  under  the  very  shadow 
of  the  cross.     I  follow  the  example  of  the  two  great  Jew- 
ish martyrs,  Jeremiah  and  Jesus.     They  made  their  home 
among  the  poor  and  despised.     They  ate  the  bread  of  afflic- 
tion with  those  who  were  sore  of  heart  and  poor  in  spirit 
Their  great  souls'  love  belonged  to  the  down-trodden  and 
outcast  children  of  God.     Their  companions  and  friends 
were  in  the  hovels  of  poverty,  not  among  the  mighty  in 
palaces  and  courts.     I,  too,  inspired  by  their  example  and 
teachings,  wish  to  be  a  Jew  in  these  latter  days.     I  cast 
my  lot  with   the  despised.     I  am  a    brother  to  the  most 
wretched  and  hopeless  of  men,  to  the  Russian  Jew,  whose 
face  and  form  tell  the  woeful  tale  of  Christian  persecution 
and  contempt  killing  body  and  soul.     You,  proud  Chris- 
tians, are  amazed  at  the  sight  of  him,  so  disfigured  and 
scarcely  human  in  his  visage.     But  I  bid  him  welcome  in 
his  rags  to  my  heart  and  home.     I  touch  his  sores  with  a 
brother's  tender  hand.     His  bruises  are  my  bruises  ;  I  bleed 
with  his  wounds ;  I  quiver  with  the  stripes,  physical  and 
moral,  which  poor  Israel  receives  at  the  hands  of  Christian 
rulers  and  nations.     You  have  a  smile  and  a  contemptuous 
name  for  the  people  of  endless  sorrows.     But  their  sorrows 
sit  brooding  over  my  soul  by  day  and  night.     The  misery 
of  the  Jews,  of  whatever  land,  poisons  my  joys  and  makes 
life  a  martyrdom  to  me.     The  shame  and  dishonor  with 


163 

which  malicious  tongues  try  to  brand  them  burn  them- 
selves into  my  soul.  The  demon  fury  which  rages  against 
the  Jews  in  anti-Semitic  Germany,  Austria,  and  Roumania 
haunts  my  waking  hours  and  torments  me  in  my  very 
dreams.  The  blasphemous  philosophy  of  Christian  think- 
ers which  declare  the  Jew  to  be  doomed  by  the  curse  of 
heredity  to  moral  inferiority,  makes  me  blush  for  mankind. 
The  contemptuous  tolerance  of  good  Christians,  the  exag- 
gerated praises  they  bestow  upon  the  Jew  with  a  patron- 
izing air,  fill  me  with  pain  and  loathing.  I  will  not  take 
refuge  in  a  church  to  save  myself  and  my  children 
from  the  common  lot  of  the  Jews.  I  sit  on  the  ground 
with  my  brethren  to  take  their  hands  in  mine.  I  strive  to 
raise  them  with  what  power  there  is  in  me  to  new  spirit- 
ual heights,  whence  they  shall  see  the  landscape  of  the 
future  blooming  with  blessings  universal,  which  they  and 
their  fathers  have  sown  with  tears.  I  pray  God  to  open 
their  eyes  that  they  may  see  the  church  universal  of 
Yahve  standing  as  a  new  Jerusalem  with  seven  gates  flung 
wide  open,  through  which  the  Gentiles  may  stream  in 
to  kneel  with  us  at  the  altar  of  the  righteous  and  merciful 
God  of  Humanity,  and  blend  their  voices  with  ours  in  the 
cry:  "Hear,  O  mankind,  the  Lord,  our  God,  the  Lord  is 
One." 


WHY  I  STUDIED  MEDICINE. 


HE  fact  that  I  have  for  the  last  five  or  six  years 
given  whatever  time  I  could  spare  from  the  arduous 
and  absorbing  duties  of  the  ministry  to  the  study  of  medi- 
cine ;  the  fact,  moreover,  that  the  University  of  Louisville 
has  lately  honored  me  with  the  diploma  of  a  physician, 
gives  the  public  the  right  to  inquire,  and  makes  it  incum- 
bent upon  me  to  explain,  why  I  have  so  long  devoted  time, 
labor,  and  thought  to  a  field  of  knowledge  that  seems  to 
lie  out  of  all  relation  to  that  of  religion,  which  it  is  my 
calling  assiduously  to  cultivate.  It  may  surprise  you  to 
be  told  that  it  was  from  religious  motives,  from  an  intense 
craving  of  my  soul  to  obtain  a  direct  answer  to  certain 
perplexing  questions,  that  I  pursued  a  course  of  study  that 
must  have  appeared  to  you  absolutely  useless  to  a  preacher 
of  righteousness,  to  a  teacher  of  faith  in  a  living  God  of 
wisdom  and  mercy. 

Religion  and  science,  the  priests  of  atheism  assure  us 
with  an  air  of  infallibility,  are  antagonistic  powers.  The 
more  diligently  you  investigate  nature  according  to  the 
strict  methods  of  scientific  inquiry,  they  say,  the  more 
readily  will  faith  lose  its  hold  on  your  mind.  They  cry: 
"As  long  as  nature  is  to  you  a  book  sealed  with  seven  seals 
you  will  be  able  to  hold  fast  to  the  traditional  belief  in  a 
universal  supreme  intelligence,  incarnate  in  all  existence 
as  the  creative  and  purposeful  cause  of  causes.  But  as  soon 
as  you  have  learned  to  open  the  volume  of  nature  and  to 
read  the  eternal  facts  writ  therein  by  the  hand  of  necessity, 
your  faith  in  the  kinship  of  nature  with  mind  will  vanish 
as  an  illusion  and  a  dream."  Listening  to  such  assertions, 


I  said  to  myself:  "Let  me  examine  for  myself,  whether  a 
deeper  and  wider  knowledge  of  nature  does  indeed  teach 
the  rank  atheism  which  is  alleged  to  be  the  last  outcome 
of  science.  Let  me  learn  to  know  as  thoroughly  and 
minutely  as  possible  what  modern  science  has  ascertained 
regarding  the  physical  framework  of  man,  which  is  doubt- 
less the  highest  manifestation  of  the  universal  energy,  the 
last  and  most  perfect  fruit  that  has  grown  in  the  world- 
garden  on  the  topmost  branch  of  the  tree  of  life.  Should 
the  study  of  the  anatomical  structure  and  the  physiological 
life  of  the  human  body  force  upon  me  the  conviction,  that 
the  world  of  nature  is  absolutely  different  from  the  world 
of  mind,  that  there  is  in  the  former  no  trace  of  the  pres- 
ence and  activity  of  intelligence,  I  will  with  an  aching 
heart,  yet  in  obedience  to  my  honest  conviction,  give  up 
the  calling  of  a  minister,  which  presupposes  the  belief  in 
an  absolute  and  infinite  wisdom  of  which  both  nature  and 
the  human  soul  are  perennial  revelations." 

Today,  after  years  of  converse  with  the  highest  forms 
of  nature,  I  make  the  solemn  declaration  that  such  con- 
verse has  made  me  more  genuinely  religious  than  ever, 
that  I  have  come  forth  from  communion  with  nature  firmly 
convinced  that  a  supreme  intelligence,  passing  man's 
understanding,  is  manifest  in  the  masterpiece  of  creation, 
in  the  human  body !  Oh,  happy  hours  that  I  spent  in  thy 
temple,  O  Science,  hours  of  blessedness  and  prayerfulness, 
when  my  spirit  felt  itself  near  the  creative  spirit  of  the 
universe,  when  my  soul  sang  joyfully,  "I  am  wonderfully 
and  fearfully  made,  O  Lord.  Verily,  the  body  of  man  is  the 
sanctuary  which  Thy  infinite  wisdom  has  formed.  When 
I  consider  Thy  wondrous  work,  this  mortal  frame  of  mind, 
which  Thy  will  has  fashioned,  my  spirit  is  overwhelmed 
within  me,  and  my  whole  being  bends  in  adoration  to 
Thee."  Life's  mystery  of  mysteries  has  embodied  itself  in 
us,  and  is  become  flesh  of  our  flesh,  bone  of  our  bone. 
The  infinite  Self  has  woven  on  the  loom  of  time  the  living 


i66 

garment  of  our  soul.  His  creative  thoughts  have  entered 
as  warp  and  woof  into  the  texture  of  our  corporeal  being. 

The  bony  framework,  which  sustains  and  bears  all, 
which  shelters  all  vital  parts  and  defends  them  against  con- 
tact with  surrounding  evil,  is  itself  the  marvel  of  marvels, 
an  inconceivably  perfect  piece  of  mechanism.  What  wise 
adaptation  of  means  to  ends  there  is  observable  in  the  whole 
and  in  every  part!  All  the  laws  of  mechanics  and  statics 
have  been  called  into  requisition  to  build  up  what  is  the 
most  elegant  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  durable,  the 
strongest  and  yet  the  most  pliant  of  structures.  What  seem 
insurmountable  difficulties  offered  by  the  law  of  gravitation 
are  overcome  by  contrivances  incredibly  cunning  and  yet 
simple  withal.  Natural  obstacles  to  locomotion  are  turned 
into  aids  facilitating  locomotion.  Every  possible  emer- 
gency is  provided  for,  every  contingency  and  danger  are 
foreseen  and  guarded  against.  There  is  the  nicest  adjust- 
ment of  every  part  to  the  whole,  the  most  harmonious  co- 
operation of  all  the  parts  to  bring  about  the  desired  result. 
Every  smallest  spot,  every  elevation  and  depression,  every 
ridge  and  groove  is  put  to  excellent  use,  and,  in  most  cases, 
is  made  to  serve  more  than  one  purpose.  Every  arrange- 
ment known  to  the  most  advanced  science  of  applied 
mechanics  finds  its  prototype  in  the  framework  of  man. 
And  this  framework  is  covered  over  with  a  garment  of  liv- 
ing tissue  that  can  not  but  fill  the  contemplative  mind 
with  worshipful  wonder. 

Will  I  ever  forget  those  hours  of  rapture  and  prayerful 
wonder,  when  under  the  guidance  of  a  masterful  teacher 
in  the  morning,  and  with  the  dissecting  knife  in  the  even- 
ing, I  learned  to  know  and  understand  the  marvelous 
system  of  muscular  bands  and  ties  and  clasps  which  bind 
and  knit  together  the  whole  body,  and  enable  it  to  perform 
innumerable  kinds  of  co-ordinated  motions  and  purposeful 
notions,  which  give  it  the  power  to  walk  and  run,  to  stand 
up  and  to  sit  down,  to  breathe  and  articulate  sound,  to  vail 


167 

or  unvail  the  eye,  to  grasp  and  unloosen  the  hand?  Who 
but  a  designing  mind  can  have  directed  muscles,  at  what 
point  they  shall  take  rise,  along  what  lines  they  shall 
spread,  and  at  what  particular  spot  they  shall  fasten  their 
ends,  in  order  to  perform  their  office  with  the  least  effort 
and  with  the  best  result?  I  can  not  shake  off  the  con- 
viction that  it  was  a  creative  purpose  which  gave  birth 
to  these  remarkable  groups  of  twin  muscles,  those  pairs 
of  correlated  and  mutually  counteracting  muscles,  of  which 
one  invariably  bends  when  the  other  unbends,  one  stiffens 
while  the  other  contracts.  Marvelous  are  the  works  of  the 
Eternal,  and  this  my  soul  knows  full  well ! 

The  muscular  system  is  infinitely  more  wonderful  than 
the  solar  system.  It  bewilders  the  mind  to  consider  the 
countless  adjustments  of  means  to  ends;  to  contemplate  the 
living  unity  of  purpose  which  binds  all  the  parts  together 
and  causes  all  their  several  movements  to  blend  and  make 
the  graceful  rhythm  of  vital  harmony.  I  am  overawed  by, 
and  stand  in  speechless  humility  before,  the  mysterious 
power  inherent  in  the  muscles  to  contract  and  retract,  to 
lengthen  out  and  harden  at  the  bidding  of  the  will  or  in 
obedience  to  commands  issued  by  unconscious  centers  of 
authority.  Who  can  help  believing  in  an  incarnated  uni- 
versal intelligence,  as  the  hidden  wonders  of  the  muscular 
structure  unfold  themselves  under  the  microscope  before 
his  gaze?  What  no  eye  has  seen  and  no  mind  had 
dreamed  of  is  disclosed  therein  as  the  divine  architecture, 
which  out  of  countless  myriads  of  tiniest  cells  builds  up 
wonderful  structures,  able  to  bear  the  greatest  strains, 
and  to  perform  during  three  score  years  and  ten  and 
upward  an  incredible  amount  of  vital  work.  Invisible  to 
the  naked  eye,  every  individual  fibre  is  revealed  by  the 
magnifying  lense  as  a  most  complex  organism  lying  shel- 
tered in  a  sheath  of  its  own  and  separated  by  it  from  the 
rest.  Millions  of  fibres  are  associated  together  wrapped  in 
a  special  covering,  which  welds  them  together  into  a  unity, 


i68 

and  isolates  them  from  the  surrounding  bundles.  And  all 
the  thousands  of  bundles  are  compacted  together  into  a 
still  higher  organic  unity  of  the  muscle,  enfolded  in  a  liv- 
ing garment  which  divides  off,  and  keeps  its  vital  functions 
apart  from,  the  adjacent  tissues. 

And  between  the  minutest  parts  there  run  innumerable 
tiny  rills  of  blood,  bringing  nourishment  to  every  cell, 
overlooking  none,  forcing  their  way  to  the  most  hidden 
and  remote.  The  sacred  rivers  of  God,  the  life-bearing 
streams  of  blood,  that  issue  from  the  lake  of  the  heart, 
and  in  rhythmic  cadences  flow  along  the  foreordained 
paths  to  the  place  whence  they  flow,  whither  they  are 
ever  returning  to  flow  again!  The  spirit  of  Creation  is 
moving  over  their  red  waves !  By  day  and  by  night  they 
hasten  with  sleepless  activity  from  place  to  place,  bearing 
in  mid-stream  the  red  purveyors  of  the  vital  breath  and 
the  white  carriers  of  life-renewing  food.  To  every  cell 
they  come  like  loving  mothers  to  their  nurslings,  to  refresh 
the  faint  and  to  feed  the  hungry.  To  each  they  offer  that 
kind  of  nourishing  substance  which  it  craves  and  needs 
for  its  maintenance  and  sustenance.  To  the  muscle  they 
give  what  will  make  muscle,  to  the  eye  what  will  form 
eye,  to  the  brain  what  will  transform  itself  into  nerve  and 
brain  matter.  It  is  inconceivable  to  me  that  accident, 
blindly  groping,  blindly  striving,  could  have  mixed  and 
combined  the  elements  making  up  the  blood  current,  and 
determined  their  due  proportions. 

Were  there  no  other  witness  in  nature,  the  heart  alone 
would  testify  to  searching  faith  that  an  Eternal  Will 
organizes  itself  as  an  intelligent  and  intelligible  purpose  in 
the  living  forms  of  creation.  Whatever  the  fanatical 
priests  of  materialism  may  assert  to  the  contrary,  our  rea- 
son refuses  to  believe  that  an  organ  as  marvelously  perfect 
as  the  heart  can  be  the  product  of  blind  mechanical 
causes.  The  heart  dwells  central  in  the  microcosm  of  the 
body  as  the  perennial  fountain  of  life.  It  is  nestled 


169 

between  the  lungs  that  are  its  life-long  associates  and 
co-workers  in  the  holy  office  of  keeping  the  vital  stream 
wholesome  and  rich.  The  inscrutable  power  inherent  in 
nature,  which  makes  for  progress  and  vital  perfection,  has 
brought  together  what  in  lower  orders  of  animal  life  form 
two  distinct  and  separate  hearts,  and  welded  them  together 
into  an  organic  unity,  making  one  perfect  organ  out  of 
twain.  Bach  half,  the  right  and  left  heart,  still  discharges 
as  in  the  early  days  of  tentative  creation  its  own  special 
function  in  the  household  of  the  body,  but  being  incorpo- 
rate into  each  other  they  beat  with  one  pulsation  and  throb 
with  the  same  rhythmic  alteration  of  activity  and  rest. 
From  every  part  of  the  body,  from  the  remotest  nooks  and 
corners,  the  blood,  which  has  done  its  service  in  feeding 
and  oxygenating  the  tissues,  returns  dark  in  color,  short  of 
vital  breath,  panting  after  life-renewing  air.  The  rills  of 
venous  blood  gather  themselves  into  brooks,  the  brooks 
swell  to  many  streams,  the  streams  unite  into  two  mighty 
rivers,  which,  one  from  above  and  the  other  from  below, 
fall  into  the  upper  chamber  of  the  right  heart.  At  the 
same  time  the  beautiful  air-laden,  red  blood  flows  from 
the  lungs  through  four  channels  into  the  upper  chamber 
of  the  left  heart.  A  shock,  a  quiver,  and  the  dark  mass 
descends  into  the  lower  chamber  of  the  right  heart,  and 
the  red  fluid  goes  down  into  the  lower  chamber  of  the  left 
heart. 

Why  does  not  the  blood  on  either  side  return  backward, 
thereby  to  cause  disease  and  bring  on  premature  death? 
Because  the  universal  creative  mind  has  prepared  gates 
and  bars  which  shut  of  themselves  and  prevent  the  blood 
from  surging  back  and  working  havoc.  Another  shock 
and  quiver  more  powerful  than  the  first,  and  lo  and  behold, 
both  halves  contract  and  stiffen,  driving  the  dark  blood  to 
the  right  into  the  lungs  to  be  purified  and  renewed  by 
receiving  the  precious  burden  of  the  vital  air,  and  to  the 
left,  sending  the  red  stream  of  life-bringing  blood  through 


170 

the  broad  aortic  channel,  thence  to  rush  onward,  dividing 
and  sub-dividing  as  it  passes  on.  But  why  do  not  both 
of  these  streams,  after  ascending,  fall  back  into  the  cavity 
from  which  they  rose?  Because  the  all- wise  creative  Self 
put  on  either  side  wondrous  curtains,  which,  immediately 
after  the  uprushing  of  the  blood,  join  themselves  together 
and  allow  not  one  drop  to  return.  Within  the  brief  space 
of  twenty  seconds  all  the  blood  has  flown  in  a  circle 
through  the  whole  body,  issuing  from  the  heart  through 
one  of  its  gates,  and  returning  through  another.  And 
this  tremendous  activity  the  heart  carries  on  by  day  and  by 
night,  in  summer  and  winter,  in  spring  and  in  autumn, 
during  seventy,  eighty  or  ninety  or  even  a  hundred  years, 
and  in  some  few  persons  even  a  hundred  and  twenty  years 
and  longer.  The  heart  never  takes  a  rest  like  the  other 
organs  of  the  body.  Were  it  to  sleep  but  a  few  minutes, 
there  would  be  no  awakening  to  the  whole  body.  Yet  it 
sleeps  by  snatches.  After  each  pulsation  there  is  a  moment 
of  silence  and  sleep.  During  this  brief  interval  of  rest 
the  blood  comes  to  it  to  feed  it  and  give  it  strength 
to  take  up  its  all-important  work  again.  Marvelous  as  is 
the  heart  in  itself  as  a  master-piece  of  creative  art,  no  less 
wonderful  are  the  intimate  functional  relations  which  it 
bears  to  every  part  and  organ  of  the  body,  and  most 
especially  to  the  lungs.  The  whole  body  appears  as  a 
systematic  unity  with  the  heart  as  its  vital  center,  from 
which  life  radiates  in  every  direction  to  the  outermost 
boundary  of  the  periphery,  and  toward  which  all  activities 
far  and  near  are  converging. 

The  very  existence  and  the  structure  of  the  lungs  are 
comprehensible  only  in  reference  to  the  service  which  they 
render  to  the  heart  and  through  it  to  the  circulation  of  the 
blood.  They  are  manifestly  means  fashioned  by  an  all- 
wise  Will  to  serve  a  purposed  end ;  they  are  made  to  con- 
vey the  life-sustaining  air  from  the  atmosphere  without  to 
the  hidden  recesses  of  the  heart,  and  at  the  same  time  to 


carry  away  the  poison  from  within  produced  by  the  self- 
combustion  of  the  blood.  Had  not  the  thousand  dissecting 
hands  of  science  laid  bare,  and  her  thousand  magnifying 
eyes  made  visible,  all  the  minutest  arrangements  and  hid- 
den marvels  of  the  pulmonary  structure,  the  human  mind 
would  not  believe  it,  that  an  organ  so  ingeniously  con- 
structed, so  perfectly  adapted  to  a  special  end,  could  exist 
in  nature.  In  the  cave  of  the  mouth,  where  the  back  wall 
meets  the  floor,  there  begins  a  tube,  the  trachea  or  wind- 
pipe, which  being  composed  of  alternate  rings  of  soft 
tissue  and  cartilage,  is  at  once  most  firm  and  most  elastic, 
capable  of  expanding  and  narrowing,  of  lengthening  and 
shortening,  to  suit  the  requirements  of  its  functions.  As  it 
descends  deeper  and  deeper  and  reaches  the  lungs,  it  enters 
them  through  an  open  door.  Along  with  it  there  are 
admitted  its  faithful  companions:  the  pulmonary  artery, 
bringing  the  dark  blood  for  aeration ;  the  veins  taking  the 
purified  blood  to  the  heart;  the  nerves,  to  energize  every 
part  and  guide  every  movement.  The  tube  splits  up  into 
two  branches,  one  going  to  the  right  lung,  the  other  to  the 
left.  Bach  branch  divides  into  many  limbs,  the  limbs  sub- 
divide into  hundreds  of  twigs,  each  twig  branches  off  into 
thousands  of  twiglets,  each  twiglet  leads  into  a  narrow 
court  into  which  numerous  little  chambers — the  air  cells — 
open.  Between  the  exceedingly  thin  walls,  which  separate 
and  unite  neighboring  air  cells,  there  spreads  a  bewildering 
network  of  tiny  rills  and  lakelets  of  dark  blood.  About 
twenty  times  every  minute  a  current  of  air  rushes  in 
through  the  wide  corridor  of  the  trachea,  enters  every  pas- 
sage, penetrates  to  every  court,  and  fills  every  air  chamber. 
The  inflated  lungs  expand,  the  elastic  ribs  fly  apart  to 
make  room,  the  diaphragm  descends,  giving  way  below. 
Meanwhile  one  of  nature's  great  miracles  takes  place.  The 
air  and  the  blood  meet  in  the  air  chambers,  separated  like 
lovers  by  a  thin  partition  wall.  The  air  gives  off  its 
precious  gift  of  oxygen,  which  passes  through  the  wall  to 


172 

mingle  with  the  blood.  The  blood  again  willingly  yields 
up  its  poisonous  carbonic  acid  to  the  air.  As  soon  as  this 
office  of  mutual  love  is  performed  the  lungs  contract,  and 
the  poison-bearing  air  is  forced  to  go  forth  and  build  up 
the  substance  of  the  plants. 

But  wise  nature,  or  rather  the  divine  wisdom  indwell- 
ing nature,  has  used  the  wind-pipe,  or  trachea,  for  a  still 
higher  purpose.  At  the  uppermost  part  of  the  wind-pipe, 
just  below  the  cave  of  the  mouth,  nature  has  built  a 
musical  instrument  called  the  larynx,  which  possesses 
excellencies  of  the  very  highest  order.  Though  this  musi- 
cal instrument  has  but  two  chords,  the  two  vocal  chords, 
it  has  an  astonishing  range  of  note,  an  almost  boundless 
power  of  modulation,  a  magic  faculty  of  making  the  air 
vibrate  with  soul-bewildering  song.  By  means  of  it  and 
the  other,  secondary  organs  of  speech,  the  infinite  Spirit  of 
All  has  enabled  the  finite  spirit  of  man  to  create  lan- 
guage, to  translate  into  articulate  sound  all  the  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  and  the  innermost  causes  which  bind  all 
the  realms  of  nature  together,  to  make  manifest  through  the 
instrumentality  of  words  the  most  impetuous  as  well  as 
the  gentlest  stirrings  of  the  emotions,  and  to  communicate 
from  mind  to  mind  the  inexhaustible  wealth  of  the  grow- 
ing reason.  What  an  immense  progress  from  the  howling 
of  the  wolf,  the  roaring  of  the  lion,  the  bleating  of  the 
sheep,  the  bellowing  of  the  ox,  and  the  chattering  of  the 
ape,  to  the  voice  of  man,  to  the  entrancing  song  of  a  Patti, 
the  stirring  declamation  of  a  Booth,  and  the  majestic  ora- 
tory of  a  Webster  or  Gladstone !  But  the  evolution  of  the 
voice  from  uttering  bestial  sounds  to  being  the  perfect 
organ  of  the  soul,  is  due  to  the  beautiful  mechanism  of  the 
human  larynx,  which,  when  once  understood,  fills  the 
student  with  a  sense  of  worshiping  admiration  for  the 
living  Purpose  which  shapes  means  to  ever  higher  ends. 

And  as  the  divine  creative  Will  and  Reason  have  evolved 
in  man  a  magnificent  organ  of  sound,  to  bring  forth  the 


witchery  of  song  and  to  reveal  the  inner  life  of  the  soul,  so 
He  has  formed  a  wondrous  organ  of  hearing,  to  receive  an 
almost  boundless  variety  of  sounds  from  nature  and  man, 
and  transmit  them  as  integral  parts  of  experience  to  the 
seat  ot  consciousness,  where  they  are  organized  together 
with  various  elements  of  impression,  received  through  the 
other  senses,  into  the  living  unity  of  thought.  Who  can 
fathom  the  world's  mystery  of  mysteries,  which  weaves 
itself  in  nature's  secret  sanctuary  into  the  purposeful  forms 
of  a  life  to  corne?  In  the  breathless  and  silent  night  of  bud- 
ding existence  organs  of  speech  and  hearing  are  fashioned, 
which  perform  their  office  only  in  the  vibrating  waves  of 
the  circumambient  air.  Him  that  planted  the  ear  we  can 
not  but  adore  as  supreme  intelligence.  For  wonders  of 
wisdom  without  number  are  wrought  into  the  structure 
of  the  ear.  Of  three  chambers  the  Master  of  life  builded 
the  echoing  palace  of  sound.  The  first  chamber  is  open 
to  the  outer  world  and  the  atmosphere.  It  is  closed 
toward  the  inner  chamber  by  a  membranous  curtain,  the 
ear-drum.  At  the  entrance  there  oozes  a  fluid,  to  catch 
and  hold  fast  intruding  insects.  The  inner  chamber  is 
filled  with  air  flowing  in  through  a  long  channel  whose 
open  end  is  to  be  seen  in  the  ceiling  of  the  mouth.  It  is 
separated  from  the  innermost  chamber  by  a  thin  wall,  in 
which  there  is  a  round  window  for  communication.  A 
trembling  bridge  made  of  three  little  bones,  the  hammer, 
the  anvil,  and  the  stirrup,  is  stretched  through  the  length 
of  the  chamber  from  wall  to  wall,  the  stirrup  resting 
in  and  filling  up  the  opening  of  the  round  window. 
The  innermost  chamber,  the  labyrinth,  is  filled  with 
water,  which  flows  around  magic  vessels  containing  water. 
In  and  around  the  magic  vessels,  in  the  midst  of  the 
mysterious  waters,  there  are  myriads  of  musical  strings,  or 
keys,  made  up  of  the  hair-like  terminations  of  the  auditory 
nerve.  Wherever  the  ocean  of  air  without  is  stirred  into 
waves,  the  sonorous  waves  transplant  themselves  through 


the  outer  chamber  to  the  ear-drum,  and  cause  it  to  vibrate. 
The  shock  is  imparted  to  the  anvil,  the  anvil  moves  the 
hammer,  the  hammer  makes  the  stirrup  quiver.  Through 
the  round  window  the  quivering  stirrup  transfers  its  own 
undulating  motion  to  the  water  within  the  innermost 
chamber.  A  moving  shiver  runs  through  the  water.  The 
wavelets  touch  the  nerve  strings  and  play  upon  them  as  on 
the  keys  of  a  musical  instrument.  The  sound  vibrations 
then  travel  upward  along  the  pathway  of  the  auditory 
nerve  until  they  reach  the  seat  of  consciousness,  where 
they  are  translated  into  feelings,  and  formed  into  harmony 
and  thought. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  expatiate  on  the  stupendous  won- 
ders which  the  most  perfect  of  all  organs,  the  most  impor- 
tant of  the  senses — the  eye — displays,  both  in  its  general 
and  minute  structure.  It  would  require  a  special  lecture, 
replete  with  the  most  difficult  anatomical  and  microscopic 
facts,  to  bring  into  view  the  divine  logic  incarnate  in  the 
organ  of  vision.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  when  I  came  to 
master  the  plan  on  which  the  human  eye  is  constructed  I 
felt  overwhelmed  by  a  feeling  of  religious  awe.  Unfor- 
getable  as  moments  of  deep  religious  experience  will 
forever  abide  with  me,  the  memory  of  those  hours,  when 
the  study  of  the  human  eye  forced  upon  me  the  conviction 
that  an  inscrutable  reason  dwells  embodied  in  nature,  and 
reveals  itself  in  the  ascending  forms  of  unfolding  animate 
life.  The  Infinite  Self  formed  the  eye  to  be  a  window  to 
the  soul  of  man,  through  which  it  shall  look  out  upon  the 
phenomena  of  the  universe,  receiving  impressions  of  light 
and  color,  with  all  their  modifications  of  intensity  and 
combinations,  and  thereby  acquiring  the  principal  ideas  of 
form,  space,  and  movement. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  ENVY. 


T  T  is  passing  strange  that  the  generality  of  men  indulge  in 
envy,  although  it  is  not  only  the  meanest  of  all  feelings, 
but  also  one  of  the  most  painful.  It  does  not  suffer  us  to 
rejoice  in  what  we  are  and  have.  The  more  success,  pros- 
perity, joy,  and  honor  we  see  around  us,  the  greater  is  the 
gloom  and  bitterness  of  soul.  And  the  distress  which 
envy  causes,  apparently  brings  with  it  no  compensation  of 
any  kind.  Why,  then,  should  nature  have  endowed  man 
with  an  emotional  quality  which  both  afflicts  and  demoral- 
izes him? 

Our  answer  is :  Envy  is  a  mental  relic  of  the  primitive 
past  of  the  human  race ;  it  is  a  survival  of  the  savage  con- 
dition and  life  of  man.  This  feeling  was  developed  to  a 
pitch  of  the  greatest  intensity  and  wrought  into  the  very 
constitution  of  man's  nature  during  countless  ages  of 
savagery,  when  man  was  daily  and  hourly  wrestling  with 
man  in  fierce  contention  for  the  barest  necessaries  of  life. 
Time  was  when  the  means  of  subsistence  were  few  and 
far  between.  The  earth,  could  supply  only  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  men  with  a  sufficiency  of  food. 
Where  nowadays  two  million  human  beings  live  in  affluence 
by  means  of  agriculture  and  manufacture,  only  a  few 
hundred  were  able  to  eke  out  a  precarious  livelihood.  In 
those  days  the  struggle  for  existence  was  relentlessly 
cruel.  Pitilessly  the  battle  for  life  was  constantly  fought 
between  societies  and  societies,  between  individuals  and 
individuals.  Plenty  enjoyed  by  one  in  many  cases  actually 
meant  starvation  to  another.  Wealth  possessed  by  one 
group  of  people  invariably  implied  the  wretchedness  of 
another  group.  There  was  so  little  to  divide,  that  what 
one  person  took  to  himself  was  regarded  by  all  others  as 


taken  from  them.  In  those  days  envy  was  the  dreadful, 
necessary,  and  legitimate  expression  of  the  instinct  and 
law  of  self-preservation.  Everybody  naturally  looked  upon 
the  larger  possessions  of  his  fellows  as  a  personal  injury  to 
himself.  One  man's  bread  was  once  literally  another 
man's  poison  or  death.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  envy 
invariably  begot  implacable  hatred.  The  envied  person 
was  indeed  an  enemy.  He  was  the  successful  rival  in  the 
deadly  struggle  for  existence,  or  rather  subsistence. 

In  those  days  of  most  cruel  competition  for  the  scanty 
means  available  for  sustaining  human  life,  envy  never  was 
a  mere  passive  feeling  preying  upon  those  who  cherished 
it.  Envy  always  led  to  a  desperate  fight  with  the  hated 
person  or  persons  who  held  in  possession  what  the  other 
lacked  and  desired.  "You  have  what  I  want  and  can  not 
do  without.  I  will  take  it  from  you  by  force,  if  I  can." 
The  stronger  man  appropriated  to  himself  what  he  could 
lay  his  hands  on.  In  proportion  to  his  gain  was  the  suffer- 
ing of  others.  Superiority  of  every  kind,  be  it  of  bodily 
strength,  of  cunning,  or  of  will-power,  made,  therefore,  a 
man  an  object  of  aversion  to  his  companions,  unless  he 
generously  used  his  powers,  skill,  and  sagacity  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  society  to  which  he  belonged.  For,  excellence 
of  every  sort,  by  which  one  individual  got  the  better  of 
his  associates,  as  a  rule,  caused  loss  and  privation  to  those 
he  had  outstripped.  Against  such  a  one  the  envy  and 
hatred  of  the  whole  social  group  usually  turned  with 
vindictive  force,  to  keep  him  down  to  the  general  level,  to 
prevent,  as  it  were,  his  selfish  appetites  from  devouring 
the  sustenance  of  others. 

Thus,  in  the  state  of  primitive  savagery,  while  man 
lived  from  hand  to  mouth,  envy  was  a  very  useful,  yes, 
an  indispensable  emotional  force  in  the  economy  of  human 
life  and  the  development  of  society.  It  spurred  the  indi- 
vidual on  to  maintain  himself  in  the  desperate  battle  of 
life.  The  man  who  looked  on  without  envious  resentment, 


while  others  grabbed  whatever  was  in  sight,  had  no  chance 
to  survive  and  bring  up  children.  His  unselfish  and 
unenvious  disposition  would  have  been  his  own  and  his 
family's  destruction.  The  legend  of  Cain  and  Abel  truly 
describes  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  foretime  of  the  race. 
The  envious  Cain  kills  his  gentle  brother,  and  becomes 
the  father  of  a  numerous  progeny.  The  early  education 
of  mankind  was  in  the  hard  school  of  hunger  and  cold,  of 
ceaseless  combat,  amid  the  passionate  actions  and  reactions 
of  untamed  egotisms.  The  meek  and  weak  and  modest 
were  crushed  out  of  existence,  and  their  race  was  cut  off 
from  the  earth.  Of  all  the  blindly  urging,  unresisted  and 
irresistible  passions  of  self-love,  envy  was  the  most  potent 
for  good  and  evil.  It  was  a  powerful  factor  in  awakening 
the  slumbering  faculties  of  individuals  and  societies  and 
raising  them  to  progressive  activities.  It  created  a  spirit 
of  healthful  rivalry.  It  caused  the  unskillful  to  imitate 
the  ways  and  adopt  the  practices  of  the  skillful.  It  com- 
pelled inferior  minds  to  emulate  superior  minds  and  copy 
their  methods  of  action,  in  the  hope  of  overtaking  them 
in  the  race  of  life.  In  a  sense  we  may  hold  with  the 
Preacher  that  all  the  doings  of  men,  all  their  forward 
movements,  individual  and  social,  were  due  to  the  stimulus 
of  envy. 

In  like  manner,  the  envy  of  people  against  people  had 
its  origin  and  justification  in  the  state  of  primitive  savagery 
and  poverty.  For  a  long  time  it  was  a  tremendous  evo- 
lutionary force.  Like  most  primeval  educational  methods 
of  Nature,  envy  was  red  in  tooth  and  claw.  It  caused 
innumerable  deeds  of  horror  to  be  committed  by  one  social 
group  against  another.  But  it  also  compelled  the  tribes  of 
men,  with  the  rod  of  an  inexorable  taskmaster,  to  bestir 
themselves  for  defense  and  attack,  to  improve  their 
material  condition,  to  exert  and  develop  their  mental 
faculties  in  order  not  to  succumb  and  perish  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  between  society  and  society. 


i78 

Time  was  when  there  were  only  a  few  favored  regions 
on  earth  which,  by  natural  exuberance,  were  capable  of 
affording  ample  means  of  life  to  a  comparatively  large 
number  of  associated  families.  Outside  of  those  favored 
regions  there  was  gaunt  misery,  a  perpetual  fight  against 
the  demons  of  want  In  those  ages  the  well-being  of  one 
people  implied  the  wretchedness  of  another.  The  goodly 
land  which  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  one  nation  was  coveted 
by  other  nations  with  envious  eyes.  In  those  days  it  was 
indeed  true,  that  the  gain  of  one  people  was  necessarily 
the  loss  of  another,  the  exaltation  of  one,  the  degradation 
of  the  others.  Then  was  every  people  the  natural  enemy 
of  neighboring  peoples.  Envy  impelled  the  poor  tribes  to 
combine  and  form  a  more  efficient  and  compact  military 
organization,  in  order  to  dispossess  the  wealthier  people  of 
their  land.  The  latter  driven  from  their  happier  homes, 
carried  the  arts  of  a  higher  civilization  into  barren  regions. 
In  the  fearful  storm  and  stress  of  competition  in  the  ages 
of  low  civilization  envy  urged  every  people  to  vie  with  the 
rest  for  the  prize  of  superiority,  to  learn  from  all  what 
could  be  learned,  to  adopt  from  the  rivals  whatever  seemed 
to  have  given  them  the  start  in  the  race  of  life.  In  the 
childhood  of  the  race  and  far  into  the  years  of  its  youth, 
envy  was  a  useful  companion  to  man,  a  Mephistophelian 
power  given  to  him  by  the  Creator,  to  prevent  him  from 
sinking  into  bestial  sloth  and  contentment,  to  goad  him 
onward  in  the  road  of  progress,  making  him  dissatisfied 
with  what  he  possessed  and  achieved,  stinging  every  people 
to  reach  out  after  the  better  conditions  and  the  superior 
arts  of  life  attained  by  more  highly  advanced  national 
rivals. 

The  beneficial  effects  of  envy  on  individual  and  social 
life  in  the  remote  past,  the  way  it  has  helped  to  work  out 
the  material  and  moral  progress  of  the  race,  is  a  striking 
illustration  of  the  great  inspiring  truth,  that  good  invaria- 
bly grows  out  of  evil,  or  that  there  is  a  soul  of  goodness  in 
things  evil. 


179 

Moreover,  like  all  evil  passions  and  activities  envy  in 
the  course  of  time  brought  forth  results  which  tended  to 
lessen  its  virulence  and  to  diminish  its  influence.  The 
very  spirit  of  rivalry  which  it  has  through  countless  ages 
exerted  in  men,  caused  individuals  and  nations  to  bring 
forth  ever  more  wealth,  to  increase  the  sum-total  of  the 
world's  goods.  The  more  plentiful  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence grow  to  be  in  the  world,  the  less  embittered  and 
cruel  becomes  the  struggle  for  existence  between  individ- 
uals and  societies.  One  man's  plenty  no  longer  necessi- 
tates another  man's  going  hungry.  One  man's  riches  no 
longer  doom  a  number  of  other  human  beings  to  wretch- 
edness. Enough  necessaries  of  life  are  produced  and 
accumulated  to  give  to  all,  save  the  idle,  the  shiftless,  and 
the  incapable,  some  share  for  sustaining  life  as  a  compen- 
sation for  their  labor.  Much  can  even  be  given  away  for 
sweet  charity's  sake  to  those  who  do  not  earn  their  bread 
by  the  sweat  of  their  brow.  The  progressive  development 
of  agriculture  and  later  on  of  manufacture  has  multiplied 
a  thousand  and  a  hundred  thousand  fold  the  means  of  life 
on  earth.  In  consequence  of  this,  envy  has  become 
infinitely  less  brutal  and  vindictive  than  it  used  to  be  in 
primitive  ages.  It  has  become  a  gentler,  a  less  aggressive 
force,  because  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  has  to  fight 
a  less  desperate  battle  for  self-maintenance. 

The  wheat  fields  and  cotton  fields  of  America,  and  the 
other  boundless  products  of  our  country,  which  supply  the 
teeming  millions  of  the  old  world  with  an  abundance  of 
cheap  and  wholesome  means  of  subsistence,  are  rendering  an 
incalculable  service  to  the  moral  health  of  Europe.  They 
bring  greater  contentment  to  the  masses  and  subdue  their 
envy  of  the  wealthier  classes,  which  otherwise  would  be  a 
destructive  anti-social  force.  The  fact  is,  the  richer  a 
country  is  in  all  kinds  of  wealth,  the  smaller  the  number 
of  people  ever  on  the  verge  of  want,  the  less  envy  will 
there  be  of  individual  against  individual,  the  less  violent 


i8o 

the  envy  of  class  against  class.  For  this  very  reason  there 
is  less  envy  in  the  make-up  of  the  American  character 
than  in  that  of  any  other  people.  The  Americans  are  not 
only  exceedingly  tolerant  with  regard  to  religious  matters, 
letting  every  man  believe  and  worship  as  he  pleases,  they 
are  just  as  tolerant  in  matters  of  a  secular  nature,  allowing 
every  man  to  pursue  his  own  interests,  his  own  happiness, 
to  the  best  of  his  ability.  "Give  every  man  a  chance, 
let  every  person  do  the  best  he  can  for  himself,"  is  the 
characteristic  expression  of  American  morality.  One 
seldom  meets  among  genuine  Americans  with  that  grim, 
yellow-visaged  envy  which  plays  such  disgraceful  pranks 
in  the  heart  of  Europe. 

The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.     Till  recent  times  wealth 
was  more  evenly  distributed  in  America  than  anywhere 
else  on  earth.     Even  to  this  day,  in  spite  of  the  immense 
fortunes  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  families,  the 
general    average    of    material  wellbeing  is  incomparably 
greater  in   this  country  than   in  any  other   part   of  the 
globe.     For  nearly  two  hundred    years    the  struggle  for 
existence  has  in  our  land  ceased  to  be  like  that  obtaining 
among  animals  and  savages.     It  has  not  been,  with  a  num- 
ber of  successive  generations,  the  dreadful  rule  of  unmoral 
nature:  You  are  eating  and  I  am  starving,  I  will  eat  and 
you  shall  starve.     There  has  been  and  still  is  ample  room 
in  this  broad  country  for  all  diligent  hands  to  obtain  a 
comfortable  livelihood.     The  widest  scope  is  readily  given 
to  every  talent  and  endeavor.     Competition  has  not  meant 
with  us  mutual  encroachment  and  injury,  but  a  friendly 
rivalry  in  making  use  of  the  vast  undeveloped  resources 
of  a  virgin  continent.     Thus,  for  several  generations  the 
feeling  of  envy  in  America  has  been  called  into  activity  far 
less  frequently  than  in  the  Old  World.     Now,  it  is  a  well- 
known   law  in  physiology  and    psychology  that   organs, 
faculties,  emotions,  which  are  seldom  brought  into  use, 
tend  to  be  atrophied,  to  shrink.     In  consequence  of  this 


partial  disuse  the  feeling  of  envy  has  become  less  violent 
and  general  in  the  American  character  than  it  is  among 
the  nations  of  the  Old  World. 

Moreover,  the  exceeding  scantiness  of  labor  and  the 
vastness  of  territory  to  be  turned  from  a  wilderness  into 
fruitful  fields  and  busy  towns,  suggested  the  wise  policy 
of  inviting  immigration,  of  bidding  a  generous  welcome  to 
all  comers,  urging  them  to  settle  among  us,  occupy  land, 
subdue  it,  and  eat  the  fat   thereof.     This  liberal  policy 
toward  strangers   has   had    a   most   beneficial    moralizing 
influence  on  the  emotional  springs  of  the  American  char- 
acter.    For  it  has  in  a  practical  way  brought  the  greatest 
idea  of  humanity,  the  idea  of  the  solidarity  of  all  men  and 
their  interests,  to  bear  upon  the  hereditary  feelings  of  envy 
and  hatred.     Here  was  a  whole  people  which  habitually 
took  delight  in  seeing  strangers,  men  of  all  races,  climes, 
conditions,  and  creeds  coming  over  and  sharing  with  the 
natives  in  their  fruitful  acres,  their  mineral  wealth,  in  their 
growing  prosperity.     For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
mankind  the  great  mass  of  a  people  came  to  recognize  the 
following  cardinal  and  moral  truth,  which  in  other  coun- 
tries and  in  different  environments  only  the  best  and  wisest 
were  able  to  grasp:  "In  a  civilized  community  the  interests 
of  all  men  are  indissolubly  bound  up  together.     The  gain 
and  success  of  every  man  in  the  last  resort  redounds  to  the 
welfare  of  all.     The  more  a  man  produces  and  lays  by, 
seemingly  to  his  own  profit  and  use,  the  more  he  increases 
the  working  forces  of  his  nation's  civilization,  the  more  he 
contributes  in  the  end  towards  its  productive  energy  and 
enhances  the  resources  of  all.     The  failure  and  wretched- 
ness of  any  denizen  in  the  land  in  some  measure  cripples 
the  vital  powers  and  lessens  the  moral  spring  and  elasticity 
of  the  whole  commonwealth.    The  more  prosperous  people 
there  are  in  the  land,  the  better  it  is  for  all.     The  efforts  to 
rise  materially,  intellectually,  spiritually,  made  by  any  citi- 
zen, help  to  lift  up  all  others  more  or  less.     The  degrada- 


182 

tion  of  any  person  or  section,  tends  to  lower  the  level  of  the 
whole  neighborhood  or  of  all  sections."  These  facts  were 
discerned  by  the  American  people  over  a  hundred  years  ago. 
They  came  not  by  these  infinitely  important  economic 
and  ethical  truths  by  way  of  philosophical  speculation. 
The  latter  were  forced  upon  their  mind  by  the  necessities  of 
their  peculiar  conditions  or  surroundings.  Still,  in  what- 
ever way  the  idea  of  the  solidarity  and  unity  of  all  men 
and  their  interests  was  reached,  it  had  a  most  salutary  edu- 
cational effect  on  the  national  character.  It  fostered  and 
strengthened  the  altruistic  feelings,  and  kept  down  and 
weakened  the  selfish  emotions  of  which  envy  and  hatred 
are  the  most  intense  manifestations. 

The  master-builders  of  the  American  commonwealth, 
the  conscious  representatives  of  the  ideals  of  civilization, 
recognized  and  proclaimed  a  practical  principle  of  a  still 
loftier  character  and  of  a  much  wider  scope.  They  recog- 
nized the  solidarity  and  oneness  of  the  interests  of  all 
nations.  They  saw  what  most  of  our  degenerate  public 
men  are  incapable  of  perceiving,  that  the  true  interests  of 
the  American  people  do  not  clash,  but  are  identical  with 
the  best  interests  of  all  civilized  nations.  The  greatest 
happiness  of  the  greatest  number  of  nations  is  also  the 
greatest  happiness  of  America.  The  latest-born  offspring 
of  civilization,  America  should  strive  to  be  the  type  of 
the  most  advanced  civilization.  She  should  emancipate 
herself  from  all  the  emotional  forces  which  were  engen- 
dered in  mankind  by  the  inexorable  necessities  and  the 
perpetual  warfare  of  the  savage  and  barbarous  past  of  the 
race.  She  should  endeavor  to  cast  behind  her  the  fatal 
legacy  of  national  envy  and  hatred,  bequeathed  to  the 
living  families  of  the  earth  by  a  long  line  of  ancestors 
whose  feelings,  thoughts,  and  actions  were  under  the  sway 
of  nature  still  red  in  tooth  and  claw.  America  should 
cherish  peace  and  goodwill  toward  all  people.  She  should 
gratefully  share  in  all  their  material  and  spiritual  bless- 
ings and  take  part  in  all  their  onward  movements.  She 


should  sorrow  over  their  calamities,  deserved  and  unde- 
served, and  regard  them  as  her  own  misfortunes.  America 
should  hate  no  people  for  whatever  power,  glory,  and 
wealth  it"may  call  its  own.  For,  whatever  good  any  people 
brings  to  light  or  produces,  increases  the  possessions  and 
forces  of  the  world's  civilization.  Whatever  things  and 
events  impoverish  and  degrade  any  nation  in  the  end  injure 
and  demoralize  the  life  of  humanity.  It  is  the  mission  of 
America  to  be  the  people  of  humanity.  All  influences  and 
powers  of  growing  humanity  are  to  ..converge  toward  her, 
and  help  to  enoble  and  exalt  her.  The  gain  of  every 
nation  is  her  gain,  the  loss  of  every  people  is  her  own 
loss.  She  bleeds  with  the  wounds  of  every  people  inflicted 
by  war.  The  healing  of  every  people  through  wisdom  and 
repentance  brings  healing  also  to  her  ills.  She  grows  with 
the  growth  of  all  nations.  She  stands  in  the  very  center 
of  modern  civilization  as  the  ingatherer  of  all  its  gifts, 
the  interpreter  of  all  its  tendencies,  as  the  realizer  of  all 
its  ideals.  How  then  should  America  envy  any  nation, 
seeing  that  every  people,  while  striving  to  do  the  very 
best  for  itself,  is  rendering  service  to  her,  and  helping  her 
to  work  out  her  mission  of  peace  and  humanity? 

The  foregoing  considerations,  psychological  and  socio- 
logical, furnish  us  with  a  set  of  ideas  which,  in  combina- 
tion with  other  ideas  derived  from  still  higher  sources, 
may  be  successfully  arrayed  by  us  against  the  impulses  of 
envy  in  our  breast.  We  should  first  of  all  with  the  utmost 
emphasis  bring  home  to  ourselves  the  fact,  that  in  the 
present  bountiful  conditions  of  human  existence,  envy  is 
an  infallible  sign  of  moral  inferiority  and  backwardness. 
Whenever  we  observe  the  presence  of  envy  in  our  bosom, 
we  should  not  hide  from  ourselves  the  degrading  nature  of 
that  feeling  by  cloaking  it  under  some  specious  name,  but 
with  a  sense  of  profound  shame  confess  to  ourselves  that 
in  spite  of  our  intellectual  trappings  and  outward  forms  of 
civilization  we  are  still  in  a  state  of  savagery  and  bestiality. 


1 84 

If  we  once  fully  realize  this  truth,  our  conscience  will 
compel  us  to  despise  ourselves  for  being  envious  like  wild 
dogs  and  wolves  or  brutal  savages.  The  torments  of  self- 
contempt  will  gradually  generate  in  [us  a  feeling  of  abhor- 
rence against  the  solicitings  of  envy  and  kindle  an  intense 
desire  to  preserve  our  self-respect  by  disciplining  ourselves 
to  rejoice  in  the  success  and  excellence  of  others.  By  thus 
developing  powerful  antagonistic  feelings,  we  may  hope  in 
course  of  time  to  emancipate  ourselves  from  the  tyrannous 
passion  of  envy,  which  is  the  most  characteristic  utterance 
of  a  nature  not  yet  regenerated  by  the  moral  forces  of 
humanity.  It  is  by  a  slow  and  painful  process  of  self-edu- 
cation alone  that  we  may  deliver  ourselves  from  the  immoral 
powers  of  unbridled  selfishness  which  abide  in  us,  being 
qualities  inherited  from  a  long  line  of  savage,  fiercely  ego- 
tistical ancestors. 

There  are  two  beings  in  every  one  of  us,  each  belong- 
ing to  a  different  order  of  things,  each  swayed  by  a  differ- 
ent set  of  impulses.  In  the  hidden  recesses  of  our  being 
there  lurks  the  savage  man,  with  the  instincts,  greedy 
desires,  and  appetites  of  the  brutish  ancestors  of  the  human 
race.  But  there  is  also  in  us  the  civilized  man  who  strives 
to  fashion  his  character  after  the  image  of  an  ideal 
humanity,  to  be  in  action  like  an  angel,  in  works  of  justice 
and  love  like  unto  God.  These  two  antagonistic  beings 
within  our  breast  are  constantly  contending  for  the  mastery 
over  us.  In  all  men  who  strive  after  the  higher  life  this 
spiritual  battle  is  being  perpetually  waged  within  the  con- 
fines of  the  soul,  reflecting  the  vaster  battle  between  the 
good  and  the  evil,  between  barbarism  and  culture,  which  is 
perpetually  being  fought  in  the  world  at  large  and  in 
history.  If  we  have  once  conquered  and  destroyed  envy 
within  us,  we  may  be  sure  that,  in  one  respect  at  least,  the 
savage  within  us  has  been  forever  subdued,  and  that  we 
may  count  ourselves  among  the  children  of  light  and  love 
and  reason.  The  presence  or  absence  of  envy  is  the 


crucial  test  by  which  we  may  judge  our  moral  standing 
and  our  true  share  in  the  higher  and  highest  attributes  of 
civilization.  For  envy  is  the  chiefest  part  of  the  mental 
furniture  of  savagery  and  bestiality,  its  principal  agency 
in  carrying  on  successfully  the  battle  of  life.  But  it  is 
glaringly  out  of  harmony  with  the  environment,  the  require- 
ments, and  the  ideals  of  civilized  humanity.  In  order  to 
overcome  entirely  and  root  out  that  feeling,  we  must  trans- 
form our  whole  being,  cast  out,  as  it  were,  the  old  Adam, 
and  become  in  feeling,  thought,  and  action  dominated  by 
the  moral  laws  and  lofty  ideals  of  the  most  advanced  rep- 
resentatives of  civilized  mankind. 


FROM  SELFISHNESS  TO 
BENEVOLENCE. 


i. 

EGOTISM  AND  ALTRUISM. 

ALL  the  sins  of  man  against  man,  be  they  sins  of 
•*•"•*•  omission  or  commission,  all  envy,  hatred,  calumny, 
malevolence,  fraud,  violence,  persecution,  spring  from 
selfishness.  Egotism,  unrestrained  and  unqualified,  is  the 
root  of  all  unrighteousness  in  feeling,  thought,  and  action. 
Moral  evil  does  not  come  from  without;  it  is  not  produced 
like  physical  evil  by  the  constitution  of  external  nature. 
Its  source  is  in  the  unregenerated  heart  of  man,  such  as  is 
shut  up  within  itself  and  is  wholly  absorbed  in  the  love  of 
self.  We  call  this  selfishness. 

Selfishness  is  self-love  perverted,  or  rather  it  is  self-love 
in  its  primitive  force.  It  is  self-love  still  swayed  by  blind 
instincts.  It  is  self-love  not  yet  enlightened  and  guided 
by  reason,  not  yet  controlled  by  the  moral  ideas  and  trans- 
formed by  tender  fellow-feeling  into  love  for  others.  That 
selfishness  is  so  very  common,  so  intense  and  persistent 
and  so  hard  to  conquer,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  self- 
love  in  its  untamed,  original  form  of  manifestation.  For 
self-love  is  a  tremendous  inborn  power.  It  is  the  primary 
and  all-dominating  element  of  our  consciousness.  It  is  a 
sleepless  energy  which  is  actively  present  in  nearly  every 
movement  of  our  mind.  We  naturally  refer  all  things,  all 
events,  and  even  all  ideas,  to  ourselves,  and  their  value  is  in 
the  last  resort  determined  by  us  in  accordance  with  the 
beneficial  or  injurious  or  indifferent  relations  which  they 


i87 

bear  to  our  own  well-being.  Every  man  is  after  all  the 
center  of  the  universe  to  himself. 

But  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  self-love  purified 
and  ennobled  by  wisdom,  changed  by  moral  and  religious 
and  social  forces  into  love  of  God  and  man,  and  self-love 
in  its  natural  state.  If  left  entirely  to  its  own  low, 
instinctive  promptings,  self-love  tends  to  make  our  own 
welfare,  real  or  imaginary,  the  sole  object  of  every  imagi- 
nation and  thought  of  our  heart.  It  will  assert  itself  with 
ruthless  selfishness.  It  will  have  no  thought  for  the  happi- 
ness of  others.  It  will  pursue  its  purely  egotistical  aims 
without  any  regard  for  the  feelings  and  interests  of  other 
human  beings.  Selfishness  or  self-love  not  yet  taken  in 
hand  and  disciplined  by  the  moral  ideas,  will  isolate  the 
individual  so  that  he  will  live  in  a  narrow,  miserable  little 
world  of  his  own,  without  contact  with  the  noble,  vast 
world  of  humanity  around  him.  If  such  self-love  were 
given  full  sway,  if  it  ever  became  general,  it  would  break 
up  human  society  into  mutually-repelling,  mutually- 
devouring  units.  There  would  be  a  perennial  war  of  all 
against  all.  Man  would  be  a  mere  animal  amongst 
animals,  a  fierce  beast  of  prey,  more  cunning  than  the  fox, 
more  cruel  than  the  tiger,  more  venomous  than  the  ser- 
pent. In  fact,  the  few  men  who  came  as  near  being 
absolutely  selfish  as  is  possible  for  human  nature  to  be, 
proved  themselves  monsters  of  cruelty,  veritable  fiends 
incarnate,  who  filled  the  earth  with  violence  of  every  kind. 
If  all  human  beings  were  like  them,  if  all  were  creatures 
exclusively  determined  by  motives  of  pitiless  egotism,  the 
human  race  would  have  no  right  and  reason  to  live.  Its 
existence  would  be  a  blot  upon  creation.  Its  complete 
destruction  by  some  fearful  cataclysm,  such  as  a  universal 
deluge,  would  be  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. 

But  perfect  egotism  or  absolute  selfishness  is  impossible 
to  the  children  of  men,  save  perhaps  a  few  monstrous 
criminals  such  as  Richard  III  and  lago.  Those  human 


1 88 

monsters  known  to  history  who  belong  to  the  category  of 
Richard  and  lago  were  as  a  rule  descended  from  a  long 
line  of  degraded  ancestors  and  had  passed  through  a  long 
apprenticeship  in  wickedness.  Indestructible  and  ever 
present  as  is  self-love,  it  yet  contains  within  itself  the  vital 
germ  of  altruism,  or  the  love  of  others.  The  human  race 
has  at  no  period  of  its  secular  life  suffered  itself  to  be 
wholly  governed  by  motives  of  selfishness.  Everywhere 
altruism  has  been  a  mighty  factor  in  developing  the  dis- 
tinctive marks  of  humanity,  in  molding  thought,  in 
shaping  conduct.  The  chiefest  and  noblest  process  of 
human  history,  consists  in  bringing  altruism,  or  love  of 
others,  to  birth,  in  investing  it  with  power  to  regulate  the 
relations  of  man  to  man. 

It  has  ever  been  the  office  of  religion  and  ethics  to 
combat  the  evils  of  selfishness,  to  wrench  the  scepter  of 
sovereign  power  from  the  hands  of  egotism.  Relentless 
war  upon  loveless  selfishness,  determined  effort  to  make 
justice  and  love  prevail  in  the  hearts  and  actions  of  men, 
is  common  to  all  advanced  religions  and  codes  of  ethics. 
But  there  is  a  radical  difference  in  their  methods,  in  the 
view  they  take  of  the  relation  of  self-love  to  altruism,  or 
the  love  of  others.  All  systems  of  morality  fall  apart  into 
two  broad  classes.  One  class,  of  which  Buddhism  is  the 
most  extreme  development,  assumes  that  altruism,  or  the 
love  for  others  with  the  duties  and  sacrifices  it  implies,  is 
hopelessly  opposed  to  self-love  and  its  claims.  It  holds 
that  there  is  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  the  self- 
regarding  and  the  other-regarding  tendencies  of  man, 
ascribing  the  former  to  what  it  calls  our  lower  nature  and 
the  latter  to  what  it  designates  as  our  higher  nature.  The 
systems  of  ethics,  religious  or  philosophical,  which  belong 
to  this  class,  regard  altruism  alone  as  distinctly  moral,  and 
consider  self-love  as  morally  indifferent  or  even  essentially 
immoral.  According  to  their  view,  we  have  duties  towards 
others,  but  none  towards  ourselves.  The  only  duty  we  owe 


189 

ourselves  is  to  practice  justice  and  benevolence  towards 
our  fellow-men.  The  other  class,  of  which  Yahvism,  or 
the  moral  monotheism  of  the  Bible,  is  the  highest  repre- 
sentative, brings  altruism  into  closest  organic  connection 
with  self-love.  Love  for  others  is  conceived  as  the  flower 
of  self-love.  Benevolence  is  the  perfect  fruit  of  our  unfold- 
ing self-love.  The  duties  of  justice  and  mercy  bloom 
forth  from  the  primary  duty  of  self-development  and  self- 
expansion  which  we  owe  to  our  own  humanity.  The  more 
genuine  and  spiritual  a  man's  love  for  himself,  the  nobler 
and  deeper  will  his  love  for  his  fellow-men  be.  Those 
systems  of  ethics  which  we  call  Yahvistic,  foster  and 
vitalize  love  for  others  by  appealing  to  the  highest 
aspirations  of  self-love.  The  opposite  system,  to  which 
we  may  give  the  generic  name  of  Buddhistic,  attack  and 
vilify  self-love,  in  order  to  magnify  altruism  and  cause  all 
our  moral  energies  to  be  exclusively  devoted  to  it.  In 
giving  a  succinct  exposition  of  the  Buddhistic  theory  of 
moral  conduct,  we  are  at  the  same  time  giving  the  general 
characteristics  of  all  kindred  systems  of  morality  which 
are  less  developed  and  consistent. 

The  clearly-conceived  and  ultimate  aim  of  Buddhism  is 
utterly  to  destroy  the  love  of  self  and  to  substitute  for  it  the 
love  of  others,  boundless  love  for  all  human  beings  as  well 
as  for  all  dumb  creatures.  The  love  of  self  is  declared  to 
be  the  cause  not  only  of  all  moral  obliquity,  of  all  sins  and 
vices,  all  hatred  and  violence,  but  also  of  all  the  physical 
ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to.  In  order  to  deliver  yourself 
from  the  curse  of  moral  and  physical  evil,  your  love  for 
your  own  self  must  become  absolutely  extinct  in  you. 
You  must  be  dead  to  pleasure  and  pain,  to  the  pangs  of 
hunger  and  thirst,  of  heat  and  cold.  You  must  grow 
utterly  indifferent  to  sickness,  old  age,  and  death,  indifferent 
to  the  world's  esteem  and  contempt.  You  must  cut  off"  in 
yourself  every  root  of  desire  and  hope.  The  only  hope 
you  mortals  should  cherish  is  that  of  being  one  day  wholly 


i  go 

rid  of  the  consciousness  of  self,  the  hope  of  extinguishing 
in  yourself  the  desire  of  distinct  personality.  When  you 
have  succeeded  in  reaching  this  stage  of  self-extinguish- 
ment, you  have  entered  Nirvana.  You  have  forever 
broken  to  pieces  the  tabernacle  of  sense-life  and  have 
escaped  from  the  miserable  prison  of  selfhood.  Then  you 
have  attained  to  Buddhahood  and  are  greater  than  any  god. 
With  the  destruction  of  all  your  self-love  you  have  volun- 
tarily destroyed  your  personality  together  with  all  evils 
inseparable  from  it.  You  have  ceased  to  be  an  individual 
being  and  become  immersed  in  the  universal,  dreamless, 
wishless  ground  of  all  appearances. 

In  order  to  become  thus  impersonal,  universal,  in  order 
to  lose  his  own  self  and  blend  with  all,  a  man  must  put 
forth  tremendous  efforts  of  self-denial  and  self-forgetfulness. 
He  must  live  for  all  but  himself,  in  order  to  become  at  one 
with  all.  He  must  lead  a  life  of  perpetual  self-sacrifice  for 
the  good  of  others.  His  whole  life,  all  his  labors  and 
thoughts  must  be  entirely  given  to  his  fellow-creatures, 
both  human  and  animal.  He  must  cast  himself  away  for 
them  and  consume  himself  for  their  benefit.  He  should 
treat  all  creatures  with  infinite  pity,  carry  their  life's  bur- 
den, soothe  their  pain,  feed  them,  if  need  be,  upon  his  own 
heart's  blood.  He  should  commiserate  them  for  the  very 
fact  that  they  are  in  the  toils  of  existence,  from  which 
none  but  a  few  elect  have  the  power  to  escape  by  virtue  of 
their  heroic  self-extinguishment.  For,  according  to  Budd- 
hism, to  live  is  to  suffer.  L/ife  is  a  disease,  of  which  all 
evils  are  necessary  symptoms  or  concomitants.  Although 
but  a  small  number  of  men,  the  wisest  of  mortals,  can  be 
completely  cured  of  this  disease  called  life,  yet  our  love 
should  offer  to  our  hapless  fellow-men  whatever  partial 
remedies  it  can  find.  But  the  best  remedy  one  can  give 
them,  is  to  teach  them  the  Buddhistic  way  of  salvation,  to 
indicate  to  them  the  path  to  Nirvana,  though  a  few  men 
only  have  the  wisdom  and  moral  courage  to  tread  it  to 
the  end. 


191 

Thus,  Buddhism  conceived  the  bold  scheme  to  over- 
come the  evils  of  selfishness  and  prevent  all  manifestations 
of  egotism  by  digging  up  all  the  roots  of  self-love  and  con- 
suming them  in  the  fire  of  life-long  self-sacrifice  and  self- 
extinction.  To  Jews  and  Christians,  brought  up  in  the 
wholesome  moral  atmosphere  of  prophetic  monotheism, 
the  great  scheme  of  Buddhistic  altruism  appears  unnatural, 
irrational,  and  impossible  of  realization.  It  is  itself  the 
grievous  disease  of  a  noble  oriental  mind,  gone  astray  in  its 
search  after  the  highest  good.  The  Buddhistic  ideal  of 
delivery  from  selfishness  by  condemning  and  destroying 
self-love  is  at  bottom  immoral,  since  it  is  an  outrage 
upon  the  dignity  of  the  human  personality.  If  the  love  of 
one's  own  self,  the  mightiest  impulse  of  our  nature,  is  rad- 
ically and  eternally  evil,  there  is  no  reason  whatever  to 
hold  that  love  for  others  is  essentially  good.  If  love  is 
an  evil  in  its  fountain-head,  in  the  original  self,  it  can 
not  be  a  virtue  in  its  outflow  towards  other  selves.  If 
every  individual  is  to  regard  his  own  life  and  welfare  as 
utterly  valueless,  he  ought  to  consider  the  life  and  happi- 
ness of  his  fellow-men  as  equally  worthless. 


II. 

PESSIMISM  AND  MEDIEVAL  ASCETICISM. 

Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  progressive  civilization, 
Buddhism  appears  as  a  sad  failure.  It  has  become  a 
blight  to  the  highest  moral,  mental,  and  social  life  of  its  fol- 
lowers, for  the  reason  that  it  attempts  to  establish  the  reign 
of  benevolence  upon  the  ruins  of  the  human  personality, 
whose  foundation  is  the  love  of  self  and  the  belief  in  the 
infinite  value  and  dignity  of  the  individual.  It  tries  to 
destroy  the  sins  and  evils  of  selfishness  by  crushing  out  all 
love  and  respect  for  self.  The  remedy  is  at  least  as  bad  as 
the  evil  which  it  is  to  cure.  For  the  economic,  mental,  and 
moral  health  of  a  race  mostly  depends  on  the  vigor  of  indi- 
vidual minds,  upon  the  energy  with  which,  within  legiti- 
mate bounds,  every  person  asserts  himself  and  exerts  his 
faculties  for  his  welfare  and  self-expansion.  Feeble  indi- 
vidual characters,  with  but  a  languid  love  of  self,  careless 
of  their  rights,  indifferent  to  the  pleasures  of  existence, 
make  a  feeble  and  cowardly  people  that  easily  falls  a  prey 
to  the  strong  will  of  despots  and  readily  submits  to  being 
robbed  by  the  violent  few  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor  and 
cheated  out  of  the  gifts  of  life.  In  spite  of  its  lofty  ethics 
of  benevolence,  Buddhism,  like  other  kindred  theories  of 
life,  has  emasculated  human  nature  and  trained  men  to  be 
patient  slaves  that  suffer  meekly,  like  sheep  while  being 
preyed  upon  by  wolves.  Buddhism  is  pessimism,  the  most 
consistent  and  gloomiest  pessimism  known  to  the  student  of 
thought.  All  other  pessimistic  conceptions  of  life,  ancient 
and  modern,  religious  or  philosophical,  are  either  copies  of 
it  or  have  risen  independently  from  a  like  sense  of  hopeless 
physical  and  moral  wretchedness  and  from  an  intense 
desire  to  conquer  selfishness  by  showing  the  utter  vanity 
ot  all  things  which  men  desire  and  to  obtain  which  they 


193 

sin  against  their  fellow-men.  The  very  soul  of  Buddhism 
and  of  every  other  kind  of  pessimism  is  the  belief  that  life 
is  not  worth  living,  that  it  is  a  pernicious  illusion  which 
mocks  us  with  its  vain  joys  and  torments  us  with  its 
innumerable  evils.  It  endeavors  to  save  man  from  all  evils 
and  emancipate  him  from  the  sinful  impulses  of  his 
selfishness  by  teaching  him  to  regard  his  life  as  a  hollow 
mockery  and  to  become  indifferent  and  insensible  to  the 
pleasures  and  pains  of  existence. 

Closely  considered,  all  pessimism,  and  especially  that  of 
Buddhism,  is  the  very  refinement  of  selfishness.  Because 
life  is  not  perfect  happiness,  because  it  is  tainted  with  evil, 
it  is  declared  to  be  an  unbearable  curse,  from  which  one 
should  seek  to  escape  one  way  or  another.  Because  self- 
love  is  seen  to  bring  forth  sin  as  well  as  good,  self-love 
must  be  cut  off  root  and  branch.  This  is  the  philosophy 
of  despair,  despair  of  the  world  and  of  the  human  soul ! 
At  sundry  periods  of  history  large  numbers  of  men  in  the 
Orient  and  in  the  Occident  took  refuge  in  the  religion  of 
world-despair  and  self-despair. 

Medieval  asceticism,  in  its  worst  form  of  aberration 
from  the  healthy  moral  ideals  of  the  Bible,  came  danger- 
ously near  the  Buddhistic  ideal  of  world-despair  and  self- 
extinguishment.  L,ike  Buddhism  it  held  that  this  world  is 
a  place  of  boundless  wretchedness,  and  is  governed  by 
powers  of  evil.  Man  is  the  principal  factor  in  making  the 
earth  an  abode  of  misery.  His  greedy  selfishness,  his  love 
of  self  and  of  pleasure,  has  from  the  very  beginning 
marred  the  beauty  of  creation  and.  called  into  existence  a 
swarming  host  of  physical  and  moral  evils.  Lawless  self- 
love  begets  all  evil  desires  and  is  the  serpent  which 
beguiles  man  to  put  forth  his  hands  after  forbidden  fruits. 
Christian  asceticism  taught  that  the  love  of  our  mortal  self 
in  any  form  is  the  parent  of  all  sins  against  God  and  man. 
It  is  the  primeval  curse  which  began  with  the  first  man 
and  has  been  inherited  by  all  his  descendants.  This  curse 


can  only  be  overcome  by  making  life-long  war  upon  the 
love  ot  self,  by  the  sacrifice  of  self  for  the  good  of  others, 
by  absolute  self-renunciation  for  the  love  of  God  and 
man. 

Self-contempt,   self-abasement,   and   self-torment   were 
believed  to  be  the  necessary  conditions  of  a  life  acceptable 
to  God,  the  only  means  of  redemption  from  the  indwelling 
curse  of  sin.     L,ove  God  and  your  fellow-men,  love  even 
your  enemies,  serve  them  and  sacrifice  yourself  for  them. 
But  treat  your,  own  self  as  a  thing  accursed,  which  can  be 
saved  only  by  the  death  of  your  love  for  self,  by  the  infinite 
grace  of  God,  and  by  the  merit  of  the  self-sacrifice  of  the 
god-man.     The  root  of  all  sin  is  the  love  of  self,  the  yearn- 
ing after  happiness  on  earth.     Kill  in  yourself  every  desire 
to  do  good  to  yourself,  remove  far  from  you  every  pleasure. 
'Rather  seek  the  opportunity  to  do  yourself  all  possible 
bodily  harm.     Torture  your  flesh  ;  quench  every  longing 
after  joy  and  honor.     Humble  yourself  to  the  dust,  esteem 
yourself  no  better  than  a  miserable  worm   that  deserves 
to  be  crushed  underfoot  by  divine  justice.     These  ideas  of 
Christian  asceticism  in  its  most  advanced  form,  these  aspi- 
rations after  self-abandonment  and  self-extinction  appear 
marvelously  like  some  leading  conceptions  of  Buddhism. 
In  fact,  there  is  hardly  a  doubt  that  directly  or  indirectly 
Christian  asceticism  both  as  to  its  ideas  and  institutions, 
was  largely  derived  from  Buddhist  India.     Various  waves 
of  Buddhistic  influence  passed  over  the  Western  world  at 
various  times  before  and  after  the  Christian  era.     Even  in 
our  own  days  Buddhism  exercises  a  peculiar  spell  over  cer- 
tain minds  in  Europe  and   America.     For  theosophy  is 
nothing    but    Buddhism    half-disguised,    half-understood, 
combined  with  heterogeneous  Christian  ideas  and  certain 
evolutionary  concepts  of  modern  science.     In  like  manner, 
Christian  asceticism  together  with  other  related  phenomena 
was  in  large  part  due  to  a  current  of  Buddhistic  ethics  and 
world-despair,  which  once  swept  over  Western  Asia,  Egypt, 
and  various  occidental  countries. 


195 

Bat  the  fact  that  medieval  asceticism  was  saturated 
with  Christian  ideas  and  hopes  makes  a  vast  difference 
between  it  and  the  Buddhist  idea  of  self-effacement.  The 
ultimate  aim  of  the  Buddhist  is  to  annihilate  his  conscious- 
ness of  self,  to  be  forever  delivered  from  the  disease  of  life 
in  this  world  and  any  other  possible  hereafter.  In  order  to 
achieve  this,  he  proceeds  to  extinguish  his  love  of  self,  to 
quench  every  desire  after  any  personal  good,  to  deaden 
every  impulse  of  self-assertion  and  self-preservation.  For 
he  regards  the  love  of  self  as  the  final  source  of  individual 
existence.  From  it  springs  self-consciousness,  which  is  the 
cause  of  all  sins  and  evil.  The  genuine  esoteric  Buddhist 
abhors  individual  conscious  existence  in  every  form  and  in 
every  place,  in  heaven  no  less  than  on  earth.  But  to  the 
Christian  ascetic  only  this  earthly  life  appears  as  a  burden 
and  a  curse.  He  loathes  his  mortal  body  as  the  vile  prison 
of  his  immortal  soul.  But  he  is  far  from  despising  life  as 
such.  He  does  not,  like  the  Buddhist,  wish  his  personality 
to  pass  entirely  out  of  existence,  to  be  blown  out  like  the 
flame  of  a  candle.  On  the  contrary,  he  aspires  after  the 
eternal  life,  a  life  of  perfect  bliss  in  the  next  world.  He 
is  determined  to  purchase  for  himself  everlasting  and 
unclouded  happiness  in  heaven  at  the  price  of  the  transient 
and  contemptible  happiness  which  our  miserable  earth  can 
offer.  He  suffers  willingly  here ;  nay,  inflicts  tortures  upon 
himself,  in  order  to  earn  beyond  the  grave  celestial  joys, 
not  the  least  of  which  will  be  to  feast  his  eyes  upon  the 
torments  of  the  enemies  of  God  in  hell.  He  humbles 
himself  on  earth,  in  order  to  be  exalted  in  heaven.  The 
pleasures  he  casts  away  here  in  this  short  sublunar  life,  he 
firmly  believes,  will  be  repaid  to  him  with  a  thousandfold 
interest  in  the  eternal  hereafter.  He  treats  himself  with 
contempt  here  below  in  the  hope  of  receiving  one  day  a 
crown  of  glory  above.  He  makes  himself  as  one  of  the 
despised  and  outcast  of  the  earth,  in  order  to  range  among 
the  blessed  elect  in  Paradise,  and  be  one  day  venerated  as  a 


196 

saint,  whose  intercession  will  be  implored  by  worshipers 
and  whose  very  bones  will  work  numerous  miracles.  In  its 
core  Christian  asceticism  was  an  audacious  sort  of  egotism. 
Behind  the  most  abject  forms  of  self-humiliation  there 
lurked  the  pride  of  the  individual,  daring  to  outrage  nature 
in  himself,  and  spurning  her  gifts  and  joys,  in  order  to 
attain  a  supernatural  eminence  and  happiness  in  heaven. 

Both  Buddhism  and  Christian  asceticism  challenge  our 
admiration,  because  they  show  what  heroic  efforts  high- 
aspiring  men  have  put  forth  to  destroy  within  themselves 
what  they  regarded  as  the  root  of  evil.  They  are  a  moral 
inspiration  to  us,  because  they  illustrate  the  noble  struggle 
of  humanity  to  conquer  the  baneful  forces  of  selfishness 
and  fire  all  hearts  with  the  desire  to  lead  a  life  of  benevo- 
lence. But  they  are  nevertheless  irrational  extremes. 
Whatever  good  they  may  have  directly  and  indirectly  accom- 
plished, the  impartial  student  can  not  help  regarding  them 
as  hostile  to  the  development  of  a  healthy  and  vigorous 
humanity.  For  they  are  at  war  with  the  human  personal- 
ity and  in  a  conflict  with  nature  and  God.  In  every  such 
conflict  man,  however  heroic,  will  suffer  shock.  Nature 
will  not  allow  herself  to  be  expelled  from  her  legitimate 
empire^  by  means  of  philosophical,  subtle  theories  nor  by 
fantastic  religious  enthusiasm.  She  will  come  back  with 
fiercer  power  and  wreck  the  man  or  sect  that  dares  offer 
violence  to  her  everlasting  laws  which  are  seated  in  the 
constitution  of  humanity. 

God  has  implanted  an  overpowering  love  of  self,  of 
happiness,  in  every  human  being.  It  is  the  part  of  supreme 
unwisdom,  it  is  rebellion  against  His  will  to  try  to  uproot 
the  love  for  self  and  desire  for  personal  wellbeing,  in  order 
to  bring  about  the  reign  of  benevolence.  Whenever  and 
wherever  attempts  of  this  kind  were  seriously  made  for  any 
length  of  time,  they  led  to  hypocrisy,  to  mental,  moral,  and 
social  stagnation,  to  a  deplorable  paralysis  of  individual 
energy.  Sooner  or  later  the  vital  impulses  of  human 


nature,  violently  suppressed  by  an  unnatural  theory  of  life, 
rise  in  furious  rebellion,  and  as  a  reaction  bring  on  a  reign 
of  unbridled  selfishness  and  shameless  sensuality.  The 
divine  order  of  things  in  nature  and  man  can  not  be  vio- 
lated with  impunity. 


198 


III. 

THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  BIBLICAL  ETHICS. 

The  religion  of  the  Bible,  or  Yahvism,  is  characterized 
throughout  by  what  we  may  call  a  spirit  of  reasonable- 
ness and  naturalness.  Even  in  its  loftiest  moral  and  relig- 
ious ideals  it  is  still  in  harmony  with  human  nature.  It 
never  makes  war  upon  the  perennial  qualities  of  the 
human  soul,  and  demands  of  no  man  supernatural  virtue 
to  which  his  being  can  not  respond.  Yahvism  is  a  religion 
of  humanity  and  wisdom,  because  it  offers  no  violence  to 
the  inborn  qualities  of  human  nature,  but  uses  them  as 
fruitful  seeds,  out  of  which  it  endeavors  to  develop  the 
highest  moral  attributes  and  powers  of  humanity.  The 
supreme  end  of  Israel's  religion  and  ethics  is  to  establish 
the  reign  of  universal  love  and  benevolence  on  earth.  But 
it  does  not  strive  to  reach  that  end  by  condemning  self-love 
as  the  root  of  all  evil.  It  does  not  teach  that  the  love  for 
self  must  be  rooted  out  of  man's  heart,  before  justice  and 
mercy  can  be  made  to  flourish  in  all  hearts  and  bear  fruit 
in  all  human  relations.  On  the  contrary,  it  takes  self-love 
as  a  fundamental  and  indestructible  fact,  and  makes  it  the 
basis  of  a  noble  code  of  ethics. 

It  is  agreed  on  all  hands  that  the  life-principle  of 
Mosaic  ethics  is  contained  in  the  commandment,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  This  is  the  whole  law 
of  Moses,  say  the  sages  of  the  Talmud.  All  particular 
moral  laws  are  merely  deductions  from  it,  every  statute  of 
righteousness  is  simply  a  special  application  of  that  uni- 
versal principle.  Now,  this  root-principle  of  justice  and 
mercy  presupposes  the  love  of  self  as  a  basal  fact  given  in 
the  constitution  of  man.  It  is  taken  for  granted  that  self- 
love  is  morally  good,  that  it  is  pleasing  to  God  and  willed 


by  him.  Self-love  is  assumed  as  the  inexhaustible  fount- 
ain-head, from  which  the  stream  of  general  love  peren- 
nially flows.  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself:  in  this  maxim 
the  love  of  others,  or  altruism,  is  made  absolutely  dependent 
on  the  love  for  self.  If  the  latter  is  held  to  be  immoral  or 
morally  indifferent,  the  former  has  nothing  left  to  rest  its 
claim  on.  If  it  were  a  sin  of  nature  to  love  one's  self,  it 
would  be  equally  sinful  to  love  others.  We  should  have  to 
draw  this  inference,  paradoxical  and  iniquitous  though  it 
might  sound.  The  river  can  never  rise  higher  than  its 
spring,  and  the  spring  of  all  love,  all  feelings  and  aspira- 
tions, is  the  mighty  and  sleepless  love  which  every  indi- 
vidual bears  to  himself.  The  spring  of  all  humanity  is 
the  individual  self-consciousness.  The  individual  soul  is 
the  spring  of  all  the  living  forces  of  knowledge  and  wis- 
dom. The  individual  character  is  the  vital  spring  of 
humanity's  moral  dignity  and  god-like  life.  The  mental, 
moral,  and  artistic  originality  of  every  age  springs  from  the 
creative  energy  of  individuals.  The  glory  and  work  and 
power  of  humankind  have  their  center  and  well-spring  in 
individual  minds  and  hearts. 

The  health  and  progress  of  a  people  are  indissolubly 
bound  up  with  the  esteem  in  which  every  individual 
holds  himself,  with  the  dauntless  courage  displayed  by 
every  man  in  claiming  his  inalienable  right  to  pursue 
his  own  happiness  and  to  develop  his  faculties  untrammeled 
by  tyrannical  social  restraints.  Every  nation  still  low  in  the 
scale  of  civilization,  every  people  already  in  a  state  of 
decay,  shows  contempt  for  the  individual  and  treats  his 
welfare  and  rights  as  matters  of  slight  moment.  The  indi- 
viduals themselves  have  little  respect  for  their  own  selves, 
and  do  not  find  the  center  of  gravity  of  their  existence  in 
their  own  manhood  and  character.  Society  or  the  nation 
becomes  an  all  devouring  Moloch,  to  whom  the  individuals 
are  mercilessly  sacrificed,  body  and  soul. 

The  distinctive  and  creative  principle  of  Yahvism  is  a 
noble  and  wise  individualism.  It  clothes  every  individual 


2OO 

with  an  infinite  moral  dignity  and  worth.  Every  man  is 
declared  to  be  made  in  the  spiritual  image  of  God.  Every 
individual  represents  the  potential  godlikeness  of  man  and 
mankind.  Every  man  is  a  world  in  himself,  a  microcosm, 
that  through  the  bonds  of  love  is  to  form  a  harmony  of 
universal  beneficent  relations  with  his  fellow-men.  Every 
man  is  bidden  to  honor  in  himself  the  majesty  of  human- 
ity that  rests  upon  him  and  to  reverence  his  own  soul  as 
an  immortal  being  stamped  with  the  likeness  of  the  Per- 
fect and  Holy  One.  Every  individual  stands  face  to  face 
with  his  God  and  Father.  His  ear  may  hear  the  voice  of 
the  universal  Lawgiver;  his  heart  may  throb  with  the 
pulses  of  the  universal  Love ;  his  mind  may  be  filled  with 
the  revelations  coming  to  him  from  the  universal  Soul. 
The  Ten  Commandments  never  use  the  plural,  you,  but  the 
singular,  thou.  They  address  themselves  to  the  individual 
man,  revealing  to  him  their  eternal  Thou  shalt  and  Thou 
shalt  not. 

The  supreme  law  of  morality,  the  principle  of  all- 
embracing  love  also  addresses  itself  to  the  individual,  say- 
ing, Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  It  clearly 
inculcates  a  twofold  love,  the  love  of  self  and  the  love  of 
others.  It  is  thy  duty  to  love  thyself,  seeing  that  thou  art 
made  in  the  image  of  God  like  thy  fellow-men.  It  is  thy 
duty  to  watch  over  thine  own  self,  to  develop  thy  mental 
faculties,  to  unfold  thy  moral  possibilities,  to  make  paradise 
for  thyself  on  earth,  as  far  as  it  is  within  thy  power.  The 
beginning  of  all  morality  is  to  love  our  own  soul  truly  and 
nobly,  to  do  good  to  our  own  self  in  the  widest  and  high- 
est sense,  to  seek  for  ourselves  the  richest  and  largest  life 
attainable.  It  is  our  duty  to  make  our  existence  complete, 
beautiful,  joyous.  Our  love  for  ourselves  must  be  so  strong 
that  it  shall  lead  us  to  the  summits  of  humanity.  Where 
the  best  have  stood,  there  we,  too,  must  endeavor  to  gain  a 
firm  foothold.  Where  the  happiest  of  mortals  have  dwelt, 
there  we,  too,  on  such  sunny  heights,  ought  to  pitch  our 


2OI 

tents.  If  we  have  no  such  duties  towards  ourselves,  we 
have  no  similar  duties  of  love  to  discharge  towards  our  fel- 
low-men. If  our  love  for  ourself  does  not  bind  us  to  seek 
our  own  highest  good,  whence  should  the  obligation  spring 
to  love  our  neighbor  and  to  put  forth  every  effort  to  further 
his  welfare  in  every  possible  way? 

Should  one  answer  and  say,  To  love  our  neighbor  is  sim- 
ply a  duty  commanded  by  God,  and  we  must  blindfoldly 
obey  the  will  of  the  almighty  Lawgiver;  to  this  we  reply, 
Such  a  duty,  such  obedience  would  be  moral  bondage,  not 
moral  freedom.  It  would  not  be  a  law  of  our  humanity,  but 
a  law  forced  upon  us  by  a  will  external  to  ourselves,  though 
it  be  the  will  of  an  omnipotent  Power.  The  will  of  God, 
if  it  is  to  bring  us  moral  freedom,  must  well  up  as  a  reve- 
lation from  our  own  will.  Every  moral  principle  must 
flow  spontaneously  from  the  deep  fountain  of  our  being. 
Every  moral  idea  must  be  a  manifestation  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  our  soul.  All  morality  must  derive  its  vitality  from 
the  well-spring  of  our  conscious  energy  and  expanding 
existence.  That  well-spring  of  moral  life  must  be  to 
every  man  his  own  personality.  The  source  of  our  ethical 
energy  must  be  the  noble  and  aspiring  love  of  self  which 
the  Master  of  life  has  implanted  in  our  soul.  From  it  are 
all  the  issues  of  moral  life,  of  all  the  forces  and  activities 
of  benevolence. 

The  whole  secret  of  benevolence,  the  very  soul  of 
humanity,  therefore,  lies  expressed  in  the  supreme  moral 
command  and  principle  of  Yahvism.  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  Love  thyself  as  duty  requires.  Love 
thyself  with  the  love  due  to  the  godlike  dignity  of  human- 
ity which  resides  in  thy  soul.  Strive  to  crown  thyself  with 
the  highest  attributes  of  the  race.  Endeavor  to  incarnate 
in  thy  character  all  those  qualities  which  make  man  but  a 
little  less  than  a  god.  Aspire  to  realize  in  thy  life  the 
ideals  of  humanity.  Love  thyself  so  as  to  make  thyself 
a  center  of  spiritual  power  and  beneficent  influences.  Let 


202 

thy  love  for  thyself  bring  about  the  steady  growth  of  thy 
mental  faculties  and  thy  moral  powers.  Let  thy  love  of 
self  manifest  itself  in  the  continuous  expansion  of  thy  per- 
sonality, in  the  ceaseless  enrichment  of  thy  life. 

But  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  just  because  he  is 
neighbor  to  thine  own  true  self.  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self, because  he  is  of  nearest  kin  to  thine  own  essence  and 
being  by  virtue  of  your  common  humanity.  Love  him  as 
thyself,  because  what  is  truly  human,  what  is  godlike  and 
eternal  in  him,  is  identical  in  origin,  nature,  and  destiny 
with  what  constitutes  thine  own  truest  and  noblest  self. 
Love  thy  fellow-man  as  thyself,  because  he  is  thy  fellow  in 
feelings  and  thoughts,  in  moral  endowments  and  aspira- 
tions. He  drinks  with  thee  of  the  same  fountains  of 
human  joys  and  sorrows.  His  mind  and  thine  own  feed 
and  grow  upon  the  same  knowledge.  The  same  eternal 
ideas  abide  as  supreme  ruling  powers  in  his  soul  and  in 
thine.  The  same  awful  moral  "ought"  is  written  upon 
the  tables  of  his  heart  and  of  thine  own.  You  both  live 
and  die,  prosper  and  perish  by  the  same  universal  divine 
laws.  Thou  and  he  represent  the  same  life  of  humanity  in 
God  and  the  life  of  God  in  humanity.  His  self  and  thine 
own  self  are  finite  and  imperfect  images  of  the  infinite  Self. 
You  both  are  perfectible  images  of  your  common  perfect 
Father. 

Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  thus  means  that 
we  shall  regard  our  neighbor  as  forming  mentally,  morally, 
and  spiritually  a  part  of  our  own  self.  We  are  to  love  our 
fellow-man  like  our  own  self,  because  we  and  he  are  closely 
related  living  parts  of  the  vaster  never-dying  self  of  human- 
ity. The  life-blood  of  humanity  courses  alike  through  our 
veins,  the  general  mind  of  humanity  embraces  and  fashions 
his  mind  and  thy  mind.  In  loving  my  fellow-man  as 
myself  I  really  love  my  own  self,  I  love  a  representative  of 
my  own  humanity.  But  let  our  thought  mount  still 
higher!  We  are  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourself,  because 


203 

his  soul  and  our  soul  have  the  source  of  their  being  and 
qualities  in  one  universal  creative  Soul.  His  spirit  and  our 
spirit  have  their  eternal  bond  of  unity  in  one  supreme  per- 
fect Spirit  and  Love.  We  are  all  bound  up  together  in  the 
unbroken  identity  of  His  life.  All  our  love  and  light  come 
to  us  from  His  being.  Our  human  love,  derived  as  it  is  from 
the  divine  Love,  should  flow  from  heart  to  heart  and  make 
one  music  of  grace  and  benevolence  of  our  diverse  lives. 
Is  it  not  the  loftiest  ideal  of  humanity  to  walk  in  the 
ways  of  God?  Now,  we  believe  of  Him  that  His  love 
embraces  all  His  creatures,  that  all  the  children  of  man  live, 
move,  and  have  their  being  in  Him.  If  there  is  any  mean- 
ing in  the  grand  conception  of  man  being  created  in  the 
image  of  God,  our  life  must  reflect  the  all-embracing  life  of 
God,  our  love  must  walk  in  the  luminous  foot-steps  of  the 
divine  Love.  Our  kinship  with  God  should  be  realized  and 
demonstrated  in  our  godlike  benevolent  relations  towards 
our  neighbor.  We  should  identify  our  selves  with  our  fel- 
low-man in  feeling,  thought,  and  action.  Let  him  be  in 
very  deed  a  neighbor  to  our  heart  and  mind !  We  should 
bear  his  personality,  his  joys  and  sorrows,  his  honor  and 
welfare  in  our  soul.  We  should  love  and  respect  him  as 
our  second  self,  or  alter  ego.  We  should  give  his  whole 
being  an  habitation  in  our  heart  and  mind.  His  person- 
ality should  be  embraced  by,  and  bound  up  with,  our  con- 
sciousness of  self  and  our  love  of  self. 


204 

IV. 

BENEVOLENCE  is  SELF-REALIZATION. 

He  that  truly  loves  his  neighbor  like  himself  realizes 
both  in  others  and  in  himself  the  ideal  of  human  life.  His 
pure  and  strong  love  tends  to  ennoble  the  nature  of  his 
neighbor,  to  strengthen  his  character,  and  fill  him  with  a 
sense  of  gladness  and  hopefulness.  By  virtue  of  such  love  a 
man  becomes  an  uplifting  moral  power  and  a  source  of  hap- 
piness to  all  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  Of  such  a 
man  it  may  be  said,  as  of  Abraham,  that  he  is  a  blessing  to 
his  fellow-men  or  that  many  of  the  children  of  men  are 
blessed  in  him.  The  beautiful  life  of  such  a  person  reflects 
the  beauty  of  the  countenance  of  divine  Love.  Such 
conduct  is  an  inspiring  influence,  a  veritable  revelation  of 
the  moral  possibilities  of  human  nature.  Such  love,  which 
goes  forth  to  meet  all  fellow-men  with  words  and  acts  of 
soul-born  benevolence,  does  with  irresistible  force  bring 
home  the  conviction  to  all  hearts  that  perfect  Love  made 
the  world  in  the  beginning  and  continues  to  manifest  itself 
and  work  salvation  through  the  godlike  love  of  noble 
men. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  by  loving  our  neighbor 
like  ourself,  by  identifying  his  personality  with  the  con- 
sciousness and  love  of  our  own  self,  that  we  can  attain  the 
fullness  of  our  individual  life.  This  love  of  others,  vary- 
ing in  intensity  and  duration  according  to  merit,  according 
to  closer  or  remoter  natural  bonds  of  fellowship,  is  self- 
love  in  ideal  transformation.  It  is  the  truest  realization 
of  our  own  selfhood.  It  is  the  expansion  of  our  self-con- 
sciousness to  ever  wider  dimensions  of  humanity.  Through 
sympathy,  pity,  love,  and  friendship  we  take  up  into  our 
soul  other  personalities,  other  lives  and  their  contents, 
their  griefs  and  joys,  their  hopes,  aspirations,  and  manifold 
experiences. 


205 

This  absorption  of  other  beings  into  our  conscious  self, 
this  blending  in  thought  of  other  personalities  with  our 
own,  is  no  fantastic  ideal,  to  which  the  realities  of  our  life 
in  no  way  correspond.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  law  of  our 
mind,  the  immutable  condition  of  all  mental  development. 
For  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  growth  of  the  indi- 
vidual consists  in  the  process  of  assimilating  the  contents  of 
other  men's  lives,  their  knowledge,  their  skill,  their  varied 
experience.  As  the  body  lives  and  grows  by  the  food 
which  it  receives  from  without  and  incorporates  into  its 
own  organism,  even  so  does  the  life  and  growth  of  the 
mind  depend  on  the  mental  and  moral  materials  which  it 
draws  into  itself  and  blends  with  its  own  being.  The 
more  a  man  appropriates  to  himself  of  the  feelings  and 
thoughts,  of  the  moral  personality  of  other  human  beings, 
living  or  departed,  the  richer  and  larger  and  nobler  does 
his  life  grow  to  be.  The  position  of  every  man  in  the 
scale  of  humanity  is  determined  by  the  share  which  he  has 
in;  the  general  and  individual  life  of  his  fellow-men.  In 
fact,  a  man  is  a  man  only  in  so  far  as  he  is  a  fellow-man  to 
other  human  beings,  in  so  far  as  there  subsists  between 
him  and  others  a  fellowship  of  ideas  and  ideals,  a  bond  of 
moral  relations,  a  community  of  benevolent -'feelings  and 
actions. 

The  superior  man  holds  within  himself  the  best  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  spiritual  results  of  his  time  and  of  all 
past  generations.  He  bears  within  himself  a  world  of 
thoughts,  to  which  great  minds  gave  birth  in  life-long 
labor.  He  has  assimilated  to  himself  that  world  of  ideas 
through  knowledge  and  made  it  the  living  contents  of  his 
own  self.  All  thinkers,  seers,  lawgivers,  poets,  artists,  and 
statesmen,  of  whose  life  and  works  he  has  a  thorough 
knowledge,  dwell  transfigured  in  his  mind.  They  live 
incarnated  in  his  self-consciousness  and  constitute  precious 
fruitful  elements  of  his  innermost  life.  The  world's 
greatest  men  are  those  who  gather  up  and  absorb  into 


206 

themselves  the  world's  deepest  and  richest  experience,  who 
live  over  in  thought  the  life  of  humanity,  and  reproduce  in 
themselves  the  intellectual,  ethical,  and  religious  evolutions 
of  mankind.  Such  typical  men  show  in  a  glorious  way 
how  the  individual  may  identify  himself  with  the  life  of 
all.  By  reaching  out  after  the  largest  wisdom  of  the  world 
such  men  advance  the  boundaries  of  their  individual  self, 
and  enlarge  them  to  the  vast  circles  of  humanity's  exist- 
ence. 

Thus,  the  continual  blending  of  our  mind  with  the 
minds  of  other  human  beings,  through  ever-increasing  com- 
munity of  thought,  the  taking  up  of  other  persons  into  our 
consciousness  as  objects  of  knowledge,  constitutes  the 
growing  life  and  mental  wealth  of  our  individual  self. 
The  more  truly  a  man  loves  himself,  and  the  more  intensely 
he  seeks  his  own  highest  good,  the  more  thorough  a  knowl- 
edge he  will  try  to  gain  of  the  surrounding  world,  of  the 
world  of  nature  and  of  man.  But  while  the  knowledge  we 
have  of  our  fellow-men  is  the  most  precious  of  our  soul's 
possessions,  the  idea  of  benevolence  comes  in  at  the  same 
time  and  demands  of  us  that  we  should  make  every  effort 
to  learn  to  know  our  neighbor,  to  have  insight  into  his 
character,  to  understand  the  motives  of  his  actions.  The 
first  step  in  benevolence  towards  our  neighbor  is,  to  use  a 
homely  but  expressive  phrase,  to  take  notice  of  him.  The 
beginning  of  all  fellowship  is  to  deem  our  fellow-men 
worth  observing  and  knowing.  We  should  place  ourselves 
in  thought  in  the  position  of  our  neighbor  and  do  unto 
him  as  we  would  be  done  by  him.  What  we  desire  above  . 
all  things  is  that  we  should  be  favorably  known  to  our  fel- 
low-men, that  they  bear  in  their  minds  a  dear  and  faithful 
image  of  our  character  and  conduct  Nothing  is  more 
painful  than  to  be  unknown  and  unappreciated.  We  con- 
sider it  a  deadly  insult  to  be  told  by  any  person  that  we 
are  beneath  his  notice.  What  anguish  to  know  that  our 
fellow-men  keep  our  personality  entirely  out  of  their  mind, 


207 

that  our  happiness  and  our  very  existence  are  matters  of 
utter  indifference  to  them !  Many  of  us  would  prefer  death 
to  such  an  awful  isolation.  No  exile  feels  himself  as 
wretched  as  he  who  knows  himself  exiled  from  the  thoughts 
of  his  fellow-men.  The  most  miserable  of  outcasts  is  he 
whom  his  fellow-men  have  cast  out  of  their  soul  as  a  crea- 
ture unworthy  of  holding  a  place  in  their  mind  and  heart. 
The  most  grievous  part  of  a  criminal's  punishment  consists 
in  his  being  banished  from  the  interest,  esteem,  and  thought 
of  his  fellow-men.  Imprisonment  is  but  an  external  or 
material  expression  of  a  man's  being  cut  off  from  the  com- 
munity of  minds.  Solitary  confinement  is  the  most 
emphatic  and  dreadful  form  of  a  person's  excommunica- 
tion from  the  social  mind.  In  the  solemn  language  of  the 
Bible,  the  man  whose  crimes  have  rendered  him  unworthy 
of  human  fellowship,  his  soul  is  utterly  cut  off  from  the 
midst  of  his  people. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  unspeakable  delight  it  is  to  be 
known  to  many  thousands  of  fellow-men,  to  be  understood, 
honored,  and  loved  by  them.  To  live  reflected  in  the  con- 
sciousness, to  dwell  crowned  with  esteem  in  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  souls,  is  indeed  the  ambition  of  noble 
spirits.  The  highest  reward  which  mankind  can  bestow 
upon  the  self-sacrificing  promoters  of  human  progress,  the 
pathfinders  of  humanity  and  the  revealers  of  wisdom,  is  to 
keep  their  personalities  and  the  story  of  their  achievements 
enshrined  in  the  grateful  memory  of  all  generations.  The 
love  of  such  immortality,  which  fires  the  imagination  and 
kindles  the  heart  of  the  greatest  mortals,  is  after  all  the 
desire  common  to  all  men  to  be  known  to  and  honored  by  as 
many  human  beings  as  possible.  As  the  hart  pants  after 
the  brooks  of  water,  so  does  every  man  long  after  recogni- 
tion. The  wish  to  be  recognized  and  not  to  be  overlooked, 
to  be  known  and  admired  and  not  be  condemned  to  inglo- 
rious obscurity,  to  be  appreciated  according  to  our  merits 
and  not  be  misjudged  and  misprized,  is  quenched  only 


208 

with  our  last  breath.  This  desire  reaches  with  every  one 
of  us  beyond  this  life  and  plants  the  hope  upon  the  grave, 
that  we  shall  not  be  cast  into  utter  oblivion,  that  we 
shall  not  wholly  die  on  earth,  but  live  transfigured  in  the 
love  and  admiration  of  our  fellow-men. 

What  our  self-love  so  eagerly  demands  of  others,  so 
ardently  hopes  to  attain  from  the  gracious  will  of  our  fel- 
low-men, the  idea  of  benevolence  bids  us  do  unto  our 
neighbor  from  a  sense  of  moral  obligation.  The  divine 
command,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself," 
first  of  all  requires  of  us  that  we  should  try  to  know  and 
judge  our  neighbor  as  we  want  others  to  know  and  judge 
us.  The  benevolent  man  shows  to  every  person,  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  that  he  takes  genuine  pleasure 
in  knowing  him.  It  is  especially  by  this  mark  that  we 
may  recognize  the  moral  greatness  of  a  man.  In  his 
mouth  the  words  of  common  politeness  used  on  making  a 
new  acquaintance,  "I  am  glad  to  know  you,"  are  no  hol- 
low phrase,  but  are  full  of  bewitching  kindness  and  soulful 
sincerity.  Among  the  countless  blessings  which  great  and 
good  men  bestow  upon  their  fellow-men,  one  of  the  very 
greatest  is  the  sense  of  joy  and  moral  exaltation  which 
they  give  us,  whenever  they  hold  converse  with  us.  Their 
words,  their  looks,  their  whole  bearing  make  it  manifest, 
that  they  delight  in  knowing  us  and  take  a  heartfelt  inter- 
est in  our  personality  and  welfare.  A  soul  of  benevolence 
beams  upon  us  from  their  eyes ;  graceful  recognition  of  our 
worth  is  conveyed  by  them  in  subtile  ways  by  what  they 
say  and  leave  unsaid.  We  are  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  they  bear  our  personality  in  their  mind  and  heart  and 
that  we  stand  high  in  the  scale  of  their  esteem  and  affec- 
tion. They  make  us  feel  that  they  place  us  on  a  level  with 
themselves.  By  the  magic  of  their  benevolence  they  raise 
us  in  our  own  estimation  and  inspire  us  with  strong  faith 
in  our  character  and  faculties. 

Their  benevolence  thus  affords  the  most  exquisite  of 
spiritual  joys  and  confers  upon  us  the  greatest  of  benefits. 


209 

Men  of  this  kind,  distinguished  above  all  others  by  the 
genius  of  benevolence,  are  loved  and  followed  with  bound- 
less enthusiasm  by  multitudes  of  their  fellow-men,  who  are 
irresistibly  drawn  within  the  magic  circle  of  their  magnetic 
personality.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  wonderful  mastery 
which  certain  great  men,  born  leaders  of  the  people,  have 
over  their  fellow-men.  It  is  intellectual  greatness  crowned 
with  the  attributes  of  love  which  exercises  such  a  spell 
over  all  minds.  We  take  pride  and  delight  in  the  surpass- 
ing powers  of  their  intellect  and  character,  because  their 
behavior  convinces  us  that  they  bear  us  in  their  mind  and 
embrace  us  with  their  love.  We  never  envy  the  greatness 
of  truly  benevolent  men.  For  we  feel  that  we  have  a  share 
in  their  glory;  knowing  that  we  live  in  their  soul,  we 
identify  ourselves  with  and  rejoice  in  the  magnitude  of 
their  mind.  Because  they  exalt  us  in  our  own  eyes,  we 
wish  to  see  them  exalted  in  the  sight  of  all.  Because  they 
descend  to  the  humblest  of  men  and  lift  them  up  to  them- 
selves with  the  arms  of  benevolence,  all  men  conspire  to 
elevate  them  above  their  fellows  and  heap  honors  upon 
their  head.  For  love  begets  love.  The  harvest  of  benev- 
olence is  honor  and  joy  to  him  who  receives  and  double 
honor  and  joy  to  him  who  gives. 

Such  a  thing  of  beauty  and  joy  is  benevolence,  such 
grace  and  favor  does  it  win  for  those  who  display  it,  that 
hypocrites  and  demagogues  mimic  its  ways  and  copy  its 
forms,  in  order  to  gain  the  love  and  confidence  of  their 
dupes.  The  art  which  the  self-seeking  politicians  culti- 
vate above  all  others,  is  to  make  every  voter  believe  that 
they  feel  honored  and  delighted  in  knowing  him,  that  they 
are  his  admiring  friends,  that  they  have  his  well-being  spe- 
cially at  heart.  The  austere,  seemingly  cold-hearted  patriot 
of  surpassing  talent  will  as  a  rule  be  beaten  in  the  race  for 
office  and  honor  by  the  shallow  demagogue,  who  knows 
human  nature  and  has  learned  how  to  play  the  part  of  a 
devoted  lover  of  his  fellow-citizens.  So  quenchless  a  long- 
ing have  men  for  the  tokens  of  benevolence  that  they  look 


2IO 

for  them  even  in  the  most  practical  dealings  with  their  fel- 
low-men. In  all  callings  those  persons  earn  largest  suc- 
cess who  wear  the  graces  of  benevolence,  whose  manners 
and  words  are  brimful  of  generous  recognition  and  hearty 
good-will  towards  all  with  whom  they  happen  to  be  in 
touch. 

The  proud  man  is  hated  and  shunned.  We  naturally 
shrink  from  having  any  transactions  with  him,  even 
though  it  entail  upon  us  a  sacrifice  of  material  advantages. 
The  proud  man  wounds  us  in  our  tenderest  feelings.  He 
refuses  to  satisfy  the  strongest  desire  of  our  social  nature. 
He  disdains  to  give  us  even  for  a  moment  a  place  in  his 
mind.  He  separates  himself  from  his  neighbor,  and  places 
himself  upon  a  lofty  pedestal,  from  which  he  looks  down 
upon  him  as  a  creature  that  is  far  beneath  him.  Instead 
of  raising  their  fellow-men  in  their  own  estimation,  as  is 
every  man's  duty,  the  proud  try  to  humble  them  and  make 
them  feel  their  inferiority.  The  very  presence  of  the 
proud  gives  pain  and  excites  feelings  of  resentment  and 
aversion.  Pride  is,  therefore,  sin  and  rebellion  against  the 
idea  of  benevolence  which  is  the  primary  law  and  condi- 
tion of  humanity. 


211 

V. 

BENEVOLENCE  AND  JUSTICE. 

Justice  and  benevolence  are  of  such  close  kin,  they  have 
so  many  features  and  relations  of  life  in  common,  that  it  is 
often  hard  to  determine  whether  a  certain  line  of  conduct 
was  commanded  by  the  former  or  the  latter.  In  many 
cases  justice  and  benevolence  must  go  hand  in  hand;  in 
order  to  reach  a  certain  end,  they  must  work  together  each 
in  its  own  way,  in  order  to  energize  the  will  and  give  light 
and  direction  to  mind  and  heart.  Thus,  justice  demands 
that  we  should  be  absolutely  just  towards  our  neighbor  in 
passing  judgment  on  his  character  or  his  actions.  But  the 
idea  of  justice  alone  will  seldom  suffice  to  make  a  man  per- 
fectly just  in  forming  and  expressing  an  opinion  touching 
the  merits  and  demerits  of  his  fellow-men.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  be  scrupulously  just  with  regard  to  things  exter- 
nal, material.  It  requires  no  very  keen  sympathy  for  a 
man,  in  order  to  mete  out  to  him  full  justice  in  tangible 
matters,  to  give  him  just  weight  and  just  measure  of  what 
he  may  claim  as  his  property  or  his  rights.  But  when  it 
comes  to  judging  of  a  man's  inner  life,  of  his  character,  the 
quality  of  his  mind,  his  virtues  and  failings,  his  strength 
and  weakness,  his  aspirations  and  achievements,  the  mere 
sense  of  justice  often  will  not  bring  us  far.  Justice  in  this 
respect  frequently  proves  a  blind  guide  of  the  blind. 

We  needs  must  have  the  lamp  of  love  in  order  to  search 
the  innermost  chambers  of  a  fellow-man's  heart  and  being. 
We  may  try  our  utmost  to  do  full  justice  to  our  neighbor, 
but  as  long  as  we  lack  the  light  of  benevolence,  we  grope 
in  darkness  and  can  not  see  him  as  he  really  is.  Every 
man  is  hidden  from  us  behind  a  dense  veil,  until  we  look 
at  him  with  the  penetrating  eye  of  intense  sympathy.  Is 
not  every  human  being  a  mystery  even  to  himself?  Is  it 


212 

not  exceedingly  difficult  for  him  to  know  himself?  How 
much  more  is  he  a  mystery  to  others!  How  much  more 
difficult  is  it  to  have  a  clear  and  appreciative  insight  into 
the  inner  life  of  another  man !  The  personality  of  every 
man  is  separated  from  us  by  the  unfathomable  gulf 
of  individual  consciousness  and  history.  Only  love  can 
form  a  magic  bridge,  on  which  our  mind  may  cross  over  to 
the  soul  of  our  fellow-man,  and  read  aright  the  writing 
engraven  on  the  tablets  of  his  heart,  discern  the  elements 
which  make  up  his  character,  and  spell  the  true  meaning  of 
his  life.  Through  benevolence  we  learn  to  see  our  neighbor 
with  his  own  mind's  eye.  We  grow  one  with  him;  we 
understand  him  as  he  understands  himself  and  judge  him 
as  he  judges  himself  in  his  calmest  self-scrutinizing  mood. 
The  benevolent  man  is  exceedingly  slow  in  judgment. 
He  is  ever  full  of  fear  lest  he  do  his  fellow-man  injustice  in 
thoughts  and  words.  He  is  continually  afraid  that  he 
might  weigh  a  brother  man  in  balances  of  deceit,  in  bal- 
ances of  prejudice  and  injurious  ignorance.  For  he  tries 
to  love  his  neighbor  like  himself,  he  feels  for  him  as  for 
himself,  and  he  realizes  the  grief  of  one  who  knows  that 
he  is  misjudged  and  misrepresented,  that  his  image  lives 
distorted  in  the  soul  of  his  fellow-man.  The  benevolent 
man  will  judge  his  neighbor  only  from  personal  knowledge, 
long  and  carefully  gathered,  from  observations  made  with 
the  eye  of  sympathy.  The  kindness  of  his  heart  warns 
him  against  judging  any  human  being  from  hearsay.  He 
refuses  to  lend  credence  to  unfavorable  rumors,  though 
repeated  by  a  thousand  tongues.  The  benevolent  man  will 
not  let  his  judgment  of  any  person  be  warped  by  the  opin- 
ion of  the  masses  that  are  blind  in  their  love  and  hatred, 
in  their  praise  and  censure.  He  will  not  follow  a  multi- 
tude to  do  evil  to  any  man  who  is  maligned  and  persecuted 
by  wicked  and  designing  persons.  He  will  never  speak 
lying  words  in  a  cause,  neither  incline  after  many  to  wrest 
the  judgment  of  an  unhappy  man  entrapped  in  a  snare 


213 

laid  for  him  by  ruthless  enemies.  He  will  not  quail  before 
the  fury  of  public  opinion,  when  it  rages  against  a  defense- 
less, calumniated  man.  Like  Voltaire  and  Emile  Zola  and 
other  heroes  of  humanity,  he  will  bid  defiance  to  the 
wrath  of  the  maddened  populace  and  reject  with  scorn  the 
unrighteous  verdict  of  those  smitten  by  hatred  with  judi- 
cial blindness.  With  the  light  of  love  that  is  within  him 
he  will  search  for  the  truth  and  find  it,  though  it  be  hid- 
den beneath  a  mountain  of  falsehoods  and  calumnies. 
With  the  dauntless  courage  and  unconquerable  might  of 
benevolence  he  will  do  battle  for  the  right  of  the  innocent. 
Panoplied  in  the  shining  armor  of  humanity  he  will  appear 
in  the  arena  as  the  champion  of  his  brother  man  against  a 
whole  people  intoxicated  with  hatred,  reeling  in  folly  and 
fury.  Undismayed  by  the  threats  and  curses  of  the  pop- 
ulace, unterrified  by  the  anger  and  violence  of  tyrannical 
power,  he  will  stand  up  for  the  right  and  dignity  of 
humanity,  outraged  in  the  person  of  any  oppressed  man. 
He  will  cast  behind  him  popular  favor  and  applause, 
wealth  and  honor,  nay,  he  will  expose  his  life  to  the  fury 
of  the  masses  and  the  hatred  of  the  mighty,  in  order  to 
redeem  the  oppressed  from  the  hand  of  their  enemies.  He 
will  fight  for  justice  with  such  deathless  devotion,  because 
he  loves  his  fellow-man,  and  shares  in  the  soul's  agony  of 
him  who  is  misjudged,  persecuted,  and  condemned  by  mal- 
evolence, envy,  and  ignorance.  The  benevolent  man  will 
judge  every  person  according  to  his  individual  merits  and 
demerits,  and  will  not  let  the  element  of  race,  nationality, 
class,  and  religion  bias  his  opinion  with  regard  to  any 
human  being.  He  who  tries  to  realize  the  ideal  of  love  as 
proclaimed  by  the  inspired  seers  of  humanity,  he  who  ever 
hears  in  his  heart  the  words  of  our  common  Father,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy  self,"  will  wage  life-long  war 
upon  all  baneful  prejudices  which  have  been  transmitted 
as  a  curse  from  generation  to  generation,  which  blind  the 
eyes  of  the  mind  to  truth  and  pervert  the  judgment  of  the 
wise. 


214 

The  typical  representative  of  this  fearless  militant 
benevolence  is  Gotthold  Bphraim  Lessing,  the  ever- 
glorious  champion  of  truth  and  humanity.  Though  he 
had  grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  dense  with  religious  and 
racial  prejudices,  he  walked  by  the  light  of  universal  jus- 
tice and  love.  His  heart  was  full  of  infinite  pity  for  poor 
Israel,  despised  in  his  time,  and  hated  by  all  men  without 
reason  and  cause.  It  was  assumed  that  every  Jew  was  a 
contemptible  wretch,  simply  because  he  was  a  Jew.  No 
one  took  the  trouble  to  learn  to  know  the  individual  Jew, 
to  honor  or  despise  him  for  what  he  was  and  not  for  what 
an  inhuman  prejudice  presumed  him  to  be  by  dint  of  his 
blood  and  faith.  But  in  the  midst  of  a  world  steeped  in 
injustice  and  malevolent  prejudice,  Lessing  sprang  up  a 
true  shoot  from  the  spiritual  stem  of  the  prophets.  The 
nobility  of  his  soul  grew  up  from  the  roots  of  Moses  and 
Jesus.  There  rested  upon  him  the  spirit  of  true  religion, 
the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  love 
and  moral  might,  the  spirit  of  saving  knowledge  and  the 
fear  of  humanity's  God.  He  did  not  judge  men  by  the 
marks  of  their  race  and  by  the  name  of  their  sect,  nor  did 
he  decide  the  moral  worth  of  any  person  by  the  voice  of 
the  ignorant  masses  and  the  damning  cry  of  religious  pre- 
judices. He  judged  the  poorest  and  most  downtrodden  of 
his  time  with  enlightened  benevolence  and  claimed  equity 
for  the  most  afflicted  of  the  land.  He  smote  the  fanatics 
of  Germany  with  the  rod  of  truth ;  with  the  breath  of  his 
lips  he  drove  the  dragon  of  racial  prejudice  into  hiding. 
Humanity  was  the  girdle  of  his  loins,  and  the  love  of  man 
was  a  lamp  to  his  feet.  The  intellectual  giant  of  Christen- 
dom bound  to  himself  the  meek  little  Jew  Mendelssohn 
with  indissoluble  ties  of  friendship,  and  glorified  one  of  the 
children  of  despised  Israel  as  Nathan  the  Wise,  proclaim- 
ing him  as  the  type  of  ideal  manhood.  He  did  not  grow 
weary  nor  become  faint  in  his  struggle  to  make  a  highway 
for  justice  and  love. 


215 

Praise  be  to  the  God  of  mankind  that  He  sent  us  His 
servant  Ephraim  Lessing  to  teach  a  benighted  world  anew 
the  gospel  of  justice  and  benevolence!  Glory  be  to  ihe 
Master  of  life  who  revealed  Himself  once  again  in  a  great 
seer,  and  inspired  him  with  wisdom  and  courage  to  fight  a 
life-long  spiritual  battle  for  the  moral  dignity  and  honor 
of  the  weak  and  meek,  around  whom  fanaticism,  ignorance, 
and  prejudice  had  built  a  wall  of  contempt  and  hatred,  sep- 
arating them  from  the  heart  and  mind  of  their  fellow-men! 
As  long  as  the  race  brings  forth  men  like  Lessing,  cham- 
pions of  truth  and  justice  and  love  even  unto  death,  we  need 
not  fear  that  the  spirit  and  practice  of  true  benevolence 
will  die  out  of  the  midst  of  men  and  make  room  for  the 
spirit  of  hate  and  envy  and  malignant  selfishness.  Their 
teachings  and  examples  are  a  perennial  fountain  of  life, 
from  which  generation  after  generation  will  draw  new 
moral  youth,  new  spiritual  strength,  new  powers  of  love. 


ETHNOLOGICAL  FICTIONS. 


OOME  time  ago  an  officer  in  the  Austrian  army  called  a 
^  Jewish  physician  "an  impudent  Semite."  The  latter 
retorted  and  called  the  officer  "an  arrogant  Aryan."  A 
bloody  duel  was  the  outcome  of  the  altercation.  The  two 
men  slashed  each  other  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  their 
respective  race.  If  there  be  evil  powers  that  hover  between 
heaven  and  earth,  watching  the  doings  of  mortals,  and 
rejoicing  in  their  follies  and  crimes,  they  must  have  taken 
a  fiendish  delight  in  the  sight  of  Jew  and  Gentile  driven 
by  the  figment  of  an  Aryan  and  a  Semitic  race  to  spill  each 
other's  blood.  There  was  precious  little  Aryan  blood  in 
the  race-proud  warrior,  and  the  doctor,  though  a  Jew,  was 
not  much  of  a  Semite. 

There  is  no  Aryan  race  anywhere  in  existence.  And 
the  Jews  certainly  can  not  lay  claim  to  being  pure  Semites. 
This  honor,  if  honor  it  be,  belongs  exclusively  to  the 
Bedouins  of  Arabia.  During  the  first  third  or  half  of  this 
century  the  imagination  of  certain  famous  linguists  gave 
birth  to  the  myth  of  a  great  and  homogeneous  Aryan  race, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  the  Basques  in  Spain,  the 
Magyars  in  Hungary,  the  Turks,  and  the  Finns,  comprised 
all  the  nations  of  Europe,  the  inhabitants  of  Northern 
India,  of  Persia,  and  of  Armenia.  Because  all  those  nations 
were  found  to  speak  kindred  languages,  the  philologians, 
with  pardonable  but  unscientific  rashness  jumped  at  the 
conclusion  that  they  were  all  of  one  blood,  of  one  race, 
that  their  common  ancestors  one  day  must  have  lived 
somewhere  in  Asia  as  a  united  people,  governed  by  the 
same  laws  and  institutions  and  worshiping  the  same  gods. 

On  the  basis  of  this  fiction  the  scholars  went  on  building 
up  a  spurious  science  of  a  common  primitive  Aryan  culture, 


217 

of  Aryan  religion  and  mythology,  of  law  and  government, 
of  their  racial  characteristics,  their  emotional  and  intel- 
lectual traits.  Imaginative  writers,  such  as  Professor  Max- 
Miiller,  drew  charming  pictures  of  the  idyllic  life  which  their 
reputed  Aryan  ancestors,  the  forefathers  of  the  Hindoos, 
the  Iranians,  the  Lithuanians,  the  Teutons,  and  the  Sclavs 
once  upon  a  time  led  in  their  Central-Asian  home,  dwelling 
together  almost  under  the  same  roof.  Ernest  Renan,  with 
his  all-knowing  retrospective  imagination,  did  most  to 
elaborate  into  a  consistent  system  the  luckless  legend  of  an 
Aryan  race,  perennially  opposed  in  its  innermost  nature, 
in  its  habits  of  thought  and  modes  of  feeling,  in  its  con- 
ception of  nature  and  life,  to  a  fictitious  Semitic  race, 
embracing  the  ancient  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  the 
Arameans  or  Syrians,  the  Hebrews,  with  their  kindred,  the 
Ammonites,  the  Moabites,  and  the  Edomites,  the  Phenicians 
and  the  Carthaginians,  all  the  inhabitants  of  Arabia,  and 
largely  also  the  tribes  of  Ethiopia.  He  describes  the  Aryans 
as  the  most  valiant,  the  noblest  and  lordliest  of  races, 
endowed  by  nature  with  a  rich  and  creative  imagination,  an 
intellect  vigorous,  profound,  metaphysical,  rather  inclined 
to  mysticism,  and  possessing  constructive  political  powers 
of  the  highest  order.  He  but  voices,  though  he  exaggerates, 
the  views  of  the  other  Aryomaniacs.  He  exalts,  above  all 
others,  the  stock  of  which  he  believes  all  the  European 
nations  to  be  the  living  representatives,  he  glorifies  it  as 
the  earth's  natural  born  aristocracy,  and  magnifies  it  as  the 
imperial  race  of  the  world,  destined  to  bear  sway  over  all 
the  children  of  men  by  the  grace  of  its  high  and  inde- 
structible native  qualities. 

How  did  Renan  and  the  whole  school  of  which  he  was 
the  most  eloquent  exponent,  come  to  know,  with  such 
wonderful  exactness  and  fulness  of  detail,  all  the  emotional 
and  artistic,  all  the  mental,  moral,  and  religious  character- 
istics of  the  hypothetical  Aryan  race?  By  a  simple  process 
of  selection  and  combination.  He  selected  the  finest 


218 

qualities  of  the  noblest  Grecian  tribes,  as  displayed  in  the 
season  of  their  richest  flowering  and  fruit-bearing,  and 
spoke  of  them  as  inborn  qualities  of  the  whole  Aryan  race. 
He  took  the  grandest  and  ripest  achievements  of  the  Hel- 
lenic genius  in  the  fields  of  poetry,  art,  and  science,  and 
deduced  from  them  instinctive  tendencies  of  the  imaginary 
Aryan  race.  The  rare  capacity  of  the  Roman  people  for 
military  and  political  organization,  slowly  developed  under 
favorable  conditions  during  centuries  of  fierce  contest  and 
growing  experience,  the  sturdiness,  the  unyielding  tenacity, 
the  undaunted  courage,  the  iron  will  and  domineering 
spirit  of  the  Roman  nation,  were  turned  by  a  mere  sleight 
of  hand  into  innate  attributes  of  whole  Aryan  families. 
Whatsoever  things  good,  whatsoever  things  true,  whatso- 
ever things  beautiful  and  great  the  Italians  and  the 
Spaniards,  the  Dutch,  the  English,  the  French,  the  Ger- 
mans, and  the  Americans  have  accomplished  in  course  of 
many  ages  in  war  and  peace,  in  art,  poetry,  philosophy, 
science,  and  commerce,  were  by  a  delusive  fancy  traced 
back  to  hereditary  racial  powers  peculiar  to  the  fancied 
Aryan  stock.  The  hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda  composed  by 
successive  generations  of  swarthy  poets  on  the  banks  of 
the  Indus  are  spoken  of  with  comical  enthusiasm  as  the 
hymns  of  our  ancestors,  as  the  oldest  poems  of  our  race. 
The  pantheistic  speculations  of  the  Indian  thinkers,  and 
the  refined  mysticism  of  Persian  Sufism,  are  claimed  no  less 
than  the  ideal  philosophy  of  Plato,  the  monumental  sys- 
tem of  Aristotle,  the  epoch-making  meditations  of  Descartes, 
and  Kant's  revolutionary  Critique  of  Pure  Reason,  as 
emanations  of  the  Aryan  spirit.  All  the  greatest  men  of 
the  Occidental  world,  all  the  kings  of  poetry  from  Homer 
to  Shakespeare  and  down  to  Goethe,  the  Indian  poet 
Kalidasa,  Firdausi,  the  famous  poet  of  the  Persian  epic, 
Shahnamah,  the  immortal  masters  of  art  from  Phidias  to 
Canova,  the  most  renowned  statesmen  from  Alexander  and 
Csesar  to  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon,  the  most  celebrated 


scientists  from  Archimedes  to  Newton  and  Darwin,  were 
compelled  to  yield  their  best  parts  in  order  to  make  up  the 
psychology  of  the  Aryan  race.  A  composite  photograph 
was  taken  of  the  supreme  men  of  India  and  Persia,  of  Hellas 
and  Italy,  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  of  Holland  and  England, 
of  Germany  and  America,  of  the  glorious  men  who  within 
the  space  of  nearly  three  thousand  years  appeared  at  long 
intervals  in  the  sky  of  humanity.  This  composite  photo- 
graph, looking  so  ideal,  so  beautiful,  was  declared  to  be  the 
true  likeness  of  the  Aryan  race.  It  was  indeed  ideal  but 
absolutely  unreal,  the  fanciful  picture  of  a  fancied  race. 

This  imaginary  superior  and  aristocratic  race,  poetic, 
artistic,  polytheistic,  philosophical,  imperial  by  virtue  of 
incredible  instincts,  finds  its  natural  contrast  and  historical 
antagonist  in  another  fictitious  race,  the  so-called  Semites, 
whom  the  omniscient  Renan,  with  his  usual  promptness 
and  recklessness  of  judgment,  brands  as  an  inferior  race. 
The  method  by  which  the  most  famous  linguists,  with  the 
adventurous  Renan  for  their  spokesman,  managed  to 
draw  a  pen-picture  of  the  emotional,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
religious  nature  of  the  Semitic  race,  corresponds  with  that 
adopted  in  delineating  the  character  of  the  Aryan  race, 
and  forms  one  of  the  most  discreditable  chapters  in  the 
annals  of  modern  scholarship.  The  monotheism  of  Israel, 
the  belief  in  one  only  God,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth, 
which  was  the  result  of  at  least  a  thousand  years  of  moral 
and  religious  development,  was  changed  by  Renan,  with 
audacious  self-assurance,  into  a  general  characteristic,  into 
a  necessary  mental  state  of  the  whole  race,  into  a  religious 
instinct  peculiar  to  all  Semites,  past  and  present.  In  the 
opinion  of  Renan  and  his  numerous  followers,  all  the 
nations  regarded  as  members  of  the  Semitic  race,  because 
they  are  known  to  have  spoken  or  to  speak  the  Semitic 
languages,  have  been  and  are  monotheists  by  an  invincible 
necessity  of  their  mental  constitution.  They  can  not  help 
believing  in  one  God  only.  Just  as  spiders  weave  their 


220 

web,  as  bees  gather  honey  by  instinct,  so  were  Semites 
compelled  by  the  form  of  their  mind  to  believe  in,  and  to 
worship,  only  one  divinity.  The  Semitic  mind,  he  says,  is 
too  narrow,  too  unimaginative,  to  believe  in  more  than  one 
God,  to  conceive  of  more  than  one  divine  power  ruling 
all  the  phenomena  of  nature.  The  expansive  imagination 
and  creative  intelligence  of  the  Aryan  race  could  not  rest 
content  in  so  narrow  a  faith,  so  beggarly  an  idea  of  the 
supreme  power.  They  peopled  the  universe  with  a  host 
of  self-conscious,  self-determined  divinities.  Every  natural 
phenomenon  was  personified,  and  represented  as  a  divine 
individual.  Even  after  the  Aryans  of  Europe  had  been 
converted,  by  persuasion  or  force,  to  a  Semitic  religion,  the 
indestructible  tendencies  of  their  polytheistic  soul  speedily 
turned  the  barren  Semitic  idea  of  an  absolute  divine  unity 
into  the  richer  and  profounder  idea  of  a  divine  trinity. 
The  belief  in  only  one  God  is  good  enough  and  natural 
enough  for  the  inferior  Semites.  But  as  to  the  Aryans, 
heaven  forbid,  that  they  should  be  satisfied  with  one  only 
God  ruling  in  the  heavens  above  and  on  the  earth  beneath  ! 
However  hard  History  tried,  she  could  not  change  the 
immutable  nature  either  of  the  Aryan  or  of  the  Semite. 
The  two  races  are  like  opposite  poles.  Some  sort  of 
polytheism  is  in  the  blood,  the  feelings,  and  the  intellect  of 
the  Aryan,  while  monotheism,  uncompromising,  fanatical, 
poor  in  ideal  contents,  is  bound  up  with  the  very  nature  of 
the  Semite. 

The  chain  of  reasoning  by  which  Renan  and  other  Aryo- 
maniacs  arrived  at  this  startling  generalization  is  as  plain 
as  it  is  delusive,  as  simple  as  it  is  false.  Israel  glories  in 
the  fact  that  it  has  given  the  religion  of  monotheism  to 
the  world.  But  did  not  the  people  of  Israel  belong  to  the 
inferior  Semitic  race?  How  should  the  spirit  of  originality 
in  this  one  particular  field,  in  the  province  of  religion, 
have  departed  from  the  great  creative  race,  the  standard- 
bearer  of  civilization  and  progress,  the  chosen  Aryan  race, 


221 

and  come  to  manifest  itself  in  so  signal  a  manner  in  the 
midst  of  the  Semitic  Hebrews?  Does  it  not  seem  like  a 
perversion  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  history?  Starting 
from  such  false  premises,  only  one  answer  could  be  given 
by  thinkers  who  believe  in  blood,  instinct,  race,  inherited 
tendencies,  as  the  cause  of  causes,  as  an  all-sufficient  expla- 
nation of  all  things  animate,  of  all  things  human.  The 
Semite  Israelites  were  believers  in  one  God  only,  because 
they  were  Semites.  All  Semites  are  born  monotheists,  just 
as  it  is  the  nature  of  sheep  to  grow  wool  and  bleat.  The 
syllogism  is  perfect.  The  Hebrews  were  Semites;  hence, 
all  Semites  were  monotheists.  You  ask  for  proofs  ?  Proofs 
shall  be  forthcoming.  Are  not  the  Semitic  Arabs  mono- 
theists? Is  not  the  Semitic  East  monotheistic?  On  the 
other  hand,  the  whole  Aryan  Occident,  all  Europe,  is  Chris- 
tian, trinitarian.  Is  this  not  convincing  evidence  ?  What 
if  History  protests  against  such  an  unwarranted  assumption, 
and  is  indignant  at  such  a  wilful  perversion  of  her  facts, 
at  such  reckless  falsification  of  her  records?  What  if  every 
page  of  history  bears  witness  to  the  fact,  that  the  so-called 
Semitic  nations,  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  the  Syrians,  the 
Phenicians,  and  the  rest  of  the  Canaanites,  and  the  Arabs 
down  to  Mohammed's  time,  were  steeped  in  idolatry  the 
most  abominable,  believed  in  innumerable  gods,  male 
and  female,  in  gods  of  heaven  and  gods  of  earth,  gods  of 
the  seas  and  of  the  rivers,  in  mountain  gods  and  forest 
gods,  divinities  of  the  sun,  divinities  of  the  moon,  divini- 
ties of  the  stars,  divine  rulers  of  life  and  of  death  and  the 
underworld?  What  if  proofs  irrefragable  go  to  show  that 
the  Israelites  themselves  had  for  ages  been  rank  polythe- 
ists,  that  there  had  been  as  many  gods  in  Israel  as  there 
were  cities  in  the  land,  that  it  required  a  thousand  years  of 
prophetic  preaching,  nay,  that  the  nation  as  such  had  to  be 
destroyed,  before  the  leaven  of  heathenism  was  overcome, 
and  a  small  remnant  was  thoroughly  and  permanently  con- 
verted to  the  belief  in  one  God{?  If  the  facts  contradict, 


222 

down  with  the  facts!  Let  them  perish  in  order  that  the 
theory  of  Aryan  superiority  and  Semitic  inferiority  may 
live  and  prosper. 

The  Semites  are  all  born  monotheists,  instinctive  wor- 
shipers of  one  God.  This  is  the  first,  though  far  from 
praiseworthy,  characteristic  of  the  race!  Moreover,  the 
despots  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  are  known  to  have  been 
fierce  and  cruel  conquerors.  There  are  to  be  seen  on  the 
ancient  monuments  harrowing  scenes  representing  acts  of 
cruelty  done  by  the  ruthless  victors  upon  the  vanquished. 
King  David  treated  the  conquered  inhabitants  of  Rabbath 
Ammon  in  a  manner  which,  to  our  refined  humanity, 
must  appear  exceedingly  inhuman.  What  inference  was 
drawn  from  these  facts?  Why,  they  were  generalized  into 
a  race  quality  of  the  Semites,  and  renowned  writers  did 
not  hesitate  to  teach,  with  an  air  of  scientific  infallibility, 
that  savage  cruelty  toward  vanquished  foes  was  a  dis- 
tinguishing feature  in  the  character  of  the  Semitic  race. 
And  what  a  glaring  contrast  such  Semitic  bloodthirstiness 
is  made  to  form  to  the  gentleness  and  the  sweet  uses  of 
humanity  usually  displayed  by  Aryans  against  their  ene- 
mies !  Several  days  after  he  had  slain  Patroclus  in  battle, 
Achilles,  the  hero  of  the  Aryan  Greeks,  tied  the  corpse  of 
his  great  foe  to  his  chariot  and  dragged  it,  driving  furiously, 
round  and  round  the  camp,  in  order  to  appease  his  wrath- 
ful and  vengeful  heart.  Yet  no  one  ever  asserted  that  the 
savage  action  of  the  ideal  Greek  was  characteristic  of  the 
whole  Aryan  race.  Alexander  the  Great  destroyed  the 
glorious  city  of  Corinth,  one  of  the  centers  of  Hellenic 
civilization,  and  sold  all  its  inhabitants  into  slavery.  Yet 
no  writer  ever  held  that  in  so  doing  Alexander  simply 
acted  in  obedience  to  the  ferocious  instincts  of  the  Aryan 
race.  Great  Caesar  one  day  ordered  a  whole  German 
people,  some  sixty  thousand  persons,  to  be  massacred  in 
cold  blood,  sparing  neither  age  nor  sex.  That  fearful 
butchery  is  declared  by  historians  to  have  been  dictated  by 


223 

motives  of  far-seeing  policy.  But  the  Aryan  race  is  not 
dragged  in  to  stand  godfather  to  it.  Was  it  by  virtue  of 
his  brutal  Aryan  nature  that  Titus  caused  over  a  hundred 
thousand  Jewish  warriors  to  fight  with  wild  beasts  in  the 
arena? 

Hadrian  hunting  the  conquered  Jews  of  Cyprus  and 
other  lands  like  wild  beasts,  is  not  declared  by  historians 
to  have  acted  out  of  the  inhuman  disposition  of  his  whole 
race.  Historians  have  diverse  kinds  of  judgment  for 
what  they  regard  as  the  Aryan  and  for  what  they  desig- 
nate as  the  Semitic  race.  Urged  and  favored  by  their 
geographical  position,  the  ancient  Phenicians  were  enter- 
prising and  shrewd  merchants ;  ages  of  remorseless  exclu- 
sion and  restriction  have  compelled  the  Jews  after  their 
dispersion  to  eke  out  a  livelihood  by  trade.  What  follows? 
Why,  the  Semites  of  all  lands  and  all  times  are  born  traders 
and  money-getters.  The  Babylonians  and  the  Canaan- 
ites  are  known  to  have  been  lascivious  in  their  religious 
practices  and  sensual  in  their  private  conduct.  Forthwith 
the  conclusion  was  reached,  that  the  whole  Semitic  race 
•was  and  is  exceedingly  sensual  by  nature.  The  peculiar 
characteristics  of  the  Bedouin  tribes  of  Arabia  have  been 
worked  as  a  rich  mine  of  adjectives,  to  be  applied  indis- 
criminately to  all  the  peoples  speaking  Semitic  tongues. 
The  Bedouin  is  avaricious  and  rapacious,  both  a  miser  and 
a  spendthrift  according  to  his  varying  moods.  So  are  all 
the  Semites.  He  is  unscrupulous  in  his  dealings,  lacking 
in  truthfulness,  unreliable ;  faithful  to  his  guests  as  long  as 
they  are  in  his  tent,  treacherous  as  soon  as  they  have  left  it. 
In  all  these  respects  the  modern  Bedouin  is  declared  to  be 
the  typical  Semite.  The  Bedouin  is  in  his  usual  demeanor 
calm  and  dignified,  but  when  aroused,  he  is  capable  of 
the  wildest  outbursts  of  uncontrollable  passion.  He  is 
revengeful  and  cruel.  L,o  and  behold,  they  cry,  the  true 
son  of  Shein!  He  dislikes  physical  labor,  and  wishes  to 
earn  his  bread  with  as  little  muscular  exertion  as  possible. 


224 

He  is  of  migratory  habits.  He  is  superstitious,  fanatical, 
his  religion  is  mainly  one  of  fear.  In  all  these  points  he 
is  held  up  as  the  true  representative  of  the  Semitic  race. 
In  this  curious  way  there  has  been  formed  a  complete,  but 
most  incongruous,  picture  of  the  Semites. 

What  a  strange  animal  the  hypothetical  Semite  is 
made  to  be !  What  an  incredible  creature  he  is,  made  up 
of  irreconcilable  contradictions!  He  is  moved,  by  the 
invisible  wires  of  instinct,  to  utter  forth  with  a  prophet's 
tongue  the  deepest  truths  regarding  God  and  the  moral 
dignity  of  man,  such  as  the  wisest  of  the  wise  among  the 
Aryans  did  not  dream  of,  and  at  the  same  time  he  adores 
vile  and  vicious  gods  and  pays  homage  to  them  in  ways 
unmentionably  abominable.  He  preaches  the  gospel  of 
love  and  mercy,  of  universal  brotherhood  and  broadest 
humanity  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  Babylon  and  Tyre  he  is  a 
bloodthirsty  despot.  In  a  word,  he  is  all  things  to  all 
men  and  all  times.  Yet  he  does  not  act  out  his  part  in 
the  free  play  of  spontaneous  development,  in  harmony 
with  his  changing  surroundings,  but  he  is  compelled  to  be 
what  he  is,  and  to  do  whatever  he  does,  by  the  fatality  of 
his  immutable  racial  nature!  Through  all  times  and  all 
lands  he  forms,  by  the  indestructible  laws  of  his  being,  an 
enduring  contrast  to  the  Aryan.  They  have  met  in  thou- 
sands of  places  and  times,  they  have  exchanged  innu- 
merable services,  they  have  adopted  from  each  other  the 
arts  of  civilization  and  learned  each  other's  wisdom  of 
life.  But  they  have  never  blended.  There  is  a  natural 
gulf  of  separation  between  them.  There  is  a  deep-seated 
mutual  antipathy  between  the  Aryan  and  the  Semitic  races ! 

Many  scholars  have  sinned  grievously  against  the 
holy  spirit  of  history  and  humanity  by  giving  expression 
to  such  perverted  and  mischievous  views.  But  it  was 
chiefly  the  witchcraft  of  Kenan's  marvelous  powers  as  a 
writer  that  gave  currency  to  those  pernicious  theories 
of  race,  and  made  them  popular  throughout  Europe 


225 

and  America  with  the  educated  and  half-educated,  from 
whom  they  gradually  percolated  down  to  the  masses. 
Without  knowing  it,  without  willing  it,  Renan  was  in 
a  sense  the  intellectual  father  of  modern  anti-Semitism. 
He  with  others  sowed  the  poisonous  seed  of  the  baleful 
theory  regarding  the  Semitic  race  and  its  eternal  antag- 
onism to  the  Aryan  race,  from  which  in  course  of  a 
few  decades  the  upas-tree  of  anti-Semitism  has  grown, 
to  their  own  dismay  and  disgust.  The  very  term  anti- 
Semitism  bears  the  birthmark  of  its  origin  in  the  lucu- 
brations of  philosophizers.  Linguists  and  historians  gave 
birth  to  the  idea  of  Semitism  ;  knavish  or  insane  agita- 
tors tacked  on  to  it  their  malignant  "anti."  Strange 
fate  and  nemesis  that  Renan,  the  gentlest  and  sweetest- 
tempered  of  men,  as  true  a  lover  of  his  kind  as 
ever  lived,  should  have  fathered  a  theory,  the  practical 
consequence  of  which  became  the  shame  and  curse  of  our 
century!  Like  many  wise  men  before  him,  he  did  not 
give  heed  to  his  words,  and  did  not  calculate  the  effect 
which  his  theory  might  have  on  natures  in  which  the 
instinct  and  the  ideas  of  the  savage  lay  dormant,  and  which 
only  required  the  right  word  to  be  awakened  to  full  life. 
With  savages  blood  kinship  is  everything.  Right  and 
wrong,  love  and  hate,  are  derived  exclusively  from  the 
bonds  of  race.  For  thousands  of  years  the  prophets  of 
Israel  and  their  disciples  have  tried  to  substitute  the  moral 
dignity  of  man  and  the  brotherhood  of  all  men  for  the 
brutal  conception  of  descent  and  race.  Barely  had  these 
supreme  ideas  of  humanity  begun  to  make  a  deeper  impres- 
sion and  to  translate  themselves  into  a  humanizing  prac- 
tice, when  leading  scholars  came  up  with  their  theories  of 
an  Aryan  race  and  a  Semitic  race,  drawing  hard  and  fast 
lines  of  separation  between  these  two  races,  and  tracing  all 
the  grandest  achievements  of  the  human  mind  back  to 
racial  qualities,  to  hereditary  instincts  and  tendencies. 
The  fanaticism  of  nationalism  in  our  days  and  the  still 


226 

fiercer  fanaticism  of  race  is  largely  due  to  the  influence 
of  such  teachings.  Since  the  Jews  are  Semites  and  we 
are  Aryans,  the  anti-Semites  say,  and  since  Semites  and 
Aryans  are-  forever  separated  from  one  another  by  their 
physical  and  also  by  their  moral  and  emotional  constitu- 
tion, the  Jews  are  and  forever  will  remain  strangers  in  our 
midst,  aliens  that  can  not  be  assimilated  with  us.  And 
since  the  Semites  are  an  inferior  race,  their  presence  in  our 
midst  is  a  perpetual  danger  to  our  higher  Aryan  life  and 
character.  Fortunately,  a  deeper  and  more  conscientious 
research,  a  science  based  on  fact  and  not  on  fancies,  during 
the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  has  begun  to  deal  staggering 
blows  to  the  ill-starred  fiction  of  an  Aryan  and  a  Semitic 
race,  and  bids  fair  soon  to  drive  it  entirely  from  the  temple 
of  knowledge  and  rob  it  of  all  power  to  affect  the  views  of 
men  for  evil. 

Certain  eminent  scholars,  foremost  among  them  the 
distinguished  French  anthropologist  Broca,  were  not  daz- 
zled by  the  splendor  of  the  Aryan  theory,  and  asked  them- 
selves in*  sober  earnestness,  what  evidence  there  was  for 
assuming  that  nearly  all  the  nations  of  Europe  and  many 
peoples  of  Asia  form  one  vast  homogeneous  race.  True,  the 
nations  in  question  do  speak  languages  which  are  closely 
related  to  one  another  and  may,  in  a  sense,  be  regarded  as 
but  widely  divergent  dialects  of  one  common  speech.  But 
does  community  of  language  prove  community  of  race? 
There  are  eight  million  negroes  in  the  United  States  and 
several  more  millions  in  the  West  Indies  who  speak 
English,  the  language  of  the  New  Englanders,  the  language 
of  Gladstone  and  Tennyson.  Will  any  one  contend  that  the 
blood  of  Washington  and  Cromwell  rolls  in  the  veins  of 
the  South  Carolina  blacks?  The  Spaniards,  the  Portu- 
guese, and  the  French  speak  Latin  tongues,  yet  there  is 
scarcely  a  trace  of  Roman  blood  in  these  nations.  The 
Mexicans  speak  Spanish,  a  Latin  dialect.  Still,  of  pure 
Spaniards  there  is  but  a  dwindling  number  in  Mexico. 


227 

The  overwhelming  mass  of  the  natives  are  of  Aztec  blood. 
The  present  inhabitants  of  Greece  are  largely  a  Slavonic 
race,  which  in  the  eighth  century  occupied  the  lands  and 
learned  the  speech  of  the  Greeks.  The  Bulgarians  speak 
a  Slavonic  language,  but  they  belong  to  the  Turkish  race. 
The  Arabic  language  is  spoken  today  by  all  the  Egypt- 
ians, the  lineal  descendants  of  the  Hamitic  pyramid  build- 
ers, by  the  Berbers  and  Kabyles  of  Algiers,  Tunis,  Tripoli, 
and  Morocco,  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  L/ibians  and 
Mauritanians.  By  adopting  the  speech  of  the  Bedouins 
they  did  not  exchange  their  blood  for  that  of  the  Arabs. 
The  Arabic  has  killed  off  all  the  native  languages  of  Asia 
Minor,  of  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Palestine.  But  in  their 
racial  features  the  populations  of  those  countries  have  con- 
tinued substantially  what  they  were  before  the  Arab  con- 
queror had  set  foot  there.  The  speech  of  Tunis  has  been 
in  turn  Numidian,  Phenician,  Latin,  Vandal,  and  Arabic. 
The  inhabitants  of  southern  Germany  speak  German ;  but, 
taken  as  a  whole,  they  belong  to  the  Celtic  stock.  They 
exchanged  their  Celtic  speech  for  German  within  historic 
times.  Instances  too  numerous  to  mention  could  be 
adduced  from  every  part  of  the  inhabited  earth  to  prove 
that,  under  certain  conditions,  there  is  a  tendency  in  lan- 
guage to  spread  from  people  to  people.  Spanish,  Portu- 
guese, French,  German,  Arabic,  and,  above  all,  English, 
are  steadily  invading  new  territories,  occupied  by  races 
physically  and  mentally  the  most  varied. 

Such  causes  as  conquest,  slavery,  the  necessities  of 
commercial  intercourse,  and  religious  propaganda  co-oper- 
ate to  give  to  certain  languages  dominion  over  vast  areas 
and  over  multitudinous  tribes  of  men  wholly  unrelated  to 
the  people  whose  speech  they  have  come  to  adopt.  What 
has  taken  place  within  historical  times,  what  is  happening 
before  our  very  eyes,  doubtless,  under  the  operation  of  the 
same  causes,  was  going  on  in  prehistoric  ages.  One 
such  universal  language,  split  up  into  numerous  branches, 


228 

is  the  Aryan  speech,  which  is  spoken  by  about  six  hun- 
dred millions  of  human  beings  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Europe,  in  northern  India  and  all  Persian  lands, 
in  the  south  of  Africa,  and  in  the  two  Americas  and  Aus- 
tralia. Many,  many  thousand  years  ago,  in  the  dim  past 
of  mankind,  it  originated  somewhere  in  Europe,  but  not  in 
Asia,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  which  scholars  are  agreed  to 
call  the  Aryans.  It  must  have  been  a  masterful  people, 
since,  like  the  English,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Arabs  of 
these  latter  centuries,  they  imparted  their  own  speech,  be 
it  by  conquest  or  by  the  powers  and  arts  of  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion, to  the  various  distinct  races  which  inhabited  and  still 
inhabit  Europe.  Which  of  the  modern  European  nations 
may  be  regarded  as  the  descendants  of  the  original  and  true 
Aryans?  Most  probably  none.  The  original  Aryans  very 
likely  mingled  and  blended  with  the  conquered  alien 
stocks,  and,  disappearing  as  a  distinct  race,  left  only  their 
language  behind  them  as  the  record  of  their  power  and  far- 
reaching  influence. 

There  exists  an  Aryan  language,  but  no  Aryan  race 
in  Europe.  The  population  of  that  continent  and  of 
other  continents  settled  by  European  colonists,  consists 
of  four  distinct  and  easily  recognizable  races.  Any 
man  with  an  observant  eye  can,  in  a  large  assemblage  of 
Europeans  or  Americans,  readily  enough  distinguish 
extremely  divergent  types,  being  the  living  representatives 
of  the  several  races  which  have  occupied  Europe  from 
time  immemorial.  Here  you  see  a  man  small  in  stature, 
of  slender  build,  swarthy  of  complexion,  with  black  eyes 
and  black  hair.  His  head  is  long,  his  forehead  narrow 
and  nearly  perpendicular.  He  is  either  a  Welshman  from 
Denbighshire  or  an  Irishman  from  Kerry,  Donegal,  or  Gal- 
way.  Or  you  may  discover  that  he  or  his  ancestors  came 
from  the  Basque  provinces  of  Spain.  But  it  is  just  as 
probable  that  he  hails  from  the  island  of  Corsica.  He 
belongs  to  the  Iberian  race.  The  Berbers  of  northern 


229 

Africa  and  the  Guanches,  of  Teneriffe  and  the  Canary 
Islands  are  his  close  racial  kinsmen.  The  bones  of  his 
remote  ancestors  are  found  in  sepulchral  caves  in  England, 
France,  Corsica,  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  Next  to 
your  Iberian  you  may  see  another  small,  dark-complex- 
ioned man  with  black  hair  and  black  eyes.  He  too  has  a 
straight  forehead.  And  yet  he  belongs  to  quite  a  different 
race.  His  head  is  extremely  short.  If  you  inquire  you 
are  sure  to  learn  that  he  or  his  forefathers  came  from  central 
France,  and  more  specifically  from  where  the  Auvergnats 
dwell.  Or  he  will  tell  you  that  he  is  a  Savoyard  or  a 
Swiss.  The  skeletons  of  his  savage  ancestors  are  found  in 
Belgian  caves  and  in  the  round  barrows  of  central  France. 
Though  both  speak  French  or  German,  they  are  as  to 
their  race  the  brothers  of  the  Laplanders.  They  and  the 
Lapps  have,  of  all  existing  races,  the  shortest  heads.  They 
resemble  one  another  in  their  swarthy  complexion,  their 
black  hair  and  eyes.  The  head  of  the  Auvergnats  and 
Lapps  is  alike  abnormally  narrow  across  the  cheek  bones 
and  wide  at  the  temples.  They  belong  to  the  Ligurian 
race,  which  once  inhabited  large  parts  of  Italy. 

Besides  those  representatives  of  the  Iberian  and  Ligu- 
rian races,  you  may  notice  in  any  large  gathering  in  Amer- 
ican cities  a  number  of  tall  men  with  blue  eyes  and  blonde 
hair  and  a  white  skin  and  somewhat  projecting  jaws. 
They  have  very  long  heads.  You  will,  at  a  glance,  recog- 
nize them  as  Swedes  or  Frisians  or  North  Germans  of  the 
fair  type.  They  belong  to  the  Scandinavian  race.  The 
bones  of  their  ancestors  are  found  in  numerous  graves  in  the 
southwest  of  Germany,  in  Holland  and  Sweden,  in  Bur- 
gundy, and  many  other  parts  of  Europe.  These  primitive 
Teutons  were  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  Europe.  They  were 
muscular,  athletic,  and  of  great  stature.  They  were  nomad 
hunters,  who  sheltered  themselves  in  caves,  but  were  with- 
out fixed  abodes  or  even  any  sepulchers.  These  savages 
were  the  direct  forefathers  of  the  Germans  and  the  Eng- 
lishmen who  represent  the  pure  Scandinavian  type. 


230 

Besides  those  three  races,  the  Iberian,  the  Ligurian,  and 
the  Scandinavian,  there  lives  in  Europe  and  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  world  a  numerous  race,  the  Celtic.  The  living 
representatives  of  this  race  are  like  their  prehistoric  fore- 
fathers, men  of  tall  stature,  with  light  eyes  and  yellowish  red 
or  brownish  red  hair.  They  have  long  and  prominent  jaws 
and  florid  faces.  They  are  marked  off  from  the  Scandinav- 
ian race  mainly  by  the  fact  that  they  are  brachycephalic 
or  short-headed.  The  great  mass  of  the  English,  Scotch, 
and  Irish  are  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Celtic  Britons. 
The  other  element  which  has  entered  into  the  composition 
of  the  British  people,  are  the  dark-skinned  Iberians  and,  to 
a  certain  extent  also,  the  Teutonic  Anglo-Saxons. 

The  fiction  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  one  of  those  delu- 
sions which  the  pride  of  the  English  and  the  American 
hugs  to  its  heart.  They  speak  with  unbearable  vanity  of 
the  noble,  glorious,  invincible,  creative,  liberty-loving 
Anglo-Saxon  race  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In  listen- 
ing to  the  Fourth-of-July  spread-eagle  eloquence  on  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  one  would  imagine  that  every  Ameri- 
can and  every  Englishman  had  nothing  but  the  purest  blood 
of  the  purest-blooded  Anglo-Saxon  invaders  in  his  veins. 
But  in  reality  the  present  Americans  are  a  mixture  of  all  the 
European  races.  And  even  the  English  and  their  purest 
descendants  in  America  have  at  best  but  a  streak  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  to  boast  of.  Only  a  number  of  noble  families 
in  England  may  lay  claim  to  being  largely  the  offspring 
of  the  invading  Anglo-Saxons.  But  the  English  as  a  mass 
are  Celts  and  Iberians.  For  even  the  Danes,  who  settled 
in  certain  parts  of  England,  are  like  the  Danes  of  Den- 
mark itself,  no  Teutons,  no  genuine  Scandinavians,  but 
Teutonized  Celts,  as  is  evidenced  by  their  racial  character- 
istics, chiefest  among  which  is  their  being  short-headed, 
instead  of  long-headed,  like  the  true  Scandinavians.  The 
same  short-headed  Celtic  race  inhabited,  as  Gauls  and 
Celts,  large  provinces  of  France.  The  French  people  thus 


231 

consists  of  a  mixture  of  Iberians,  Lagurians,  and  Celts,  with 
a  sprinkling  of  Teutons.  The  present  Spanish  people  is 
composed  of  Iberians  and  Celts,  and  in  a  measure,  also,  of 
Phenicians  and  Jews.  The  south  of  Germany  as  far  north 
as  the  Teutoburger  Wald,  the  Thiiringer  Wald,  and  the 
Riesengebirge  is  in  the  main  Celtic  in  race,  though  Ger- 
man in  speech.  The  Swiss  people,  whose  ancestors  erected 
pile  dwellings  around  the  Swiss  lakes,  belong,  together 
with  the  people  of  northern  Italy,  to  the  same  Celtic  race, 
with  a  large  mixture  of  Etruscan  and  other  blood.  The 
southern  Italians  are  of  quite  a  different  race.  All  the 
nations  of  Slavic  speech,  except  the  Great  Russians,  or  the 
Russians  proper,  are  members  of  the  same  far-spreading 
race.  They  have  short  heads,  light  hair,  and  light  eyes. 
Yet  let  not  the  Celts  of  France  and  England  believe  and 
boast  that  they  represent  the  genuine  high-born  Aryan 
race.  For  the  despised  tribes  of  Siberia,  the  barbarous 
Finno-Tartaric  tribes,  that  speak  Turkish  languages, 
belong  to  the  same  aristocratic  race.  All  of  them  are 
short-headed.  Most  of  them  have  blue  eyes  and  flaxen  or 
red  hair.  The  Turcomans  are  usually  blonde.  The  heads 
of  the  Mongols  are  precisely  like  those  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  short-headed  English. 

All  of  the  foregoing  details  will  suffice  to  convince  the 
most  skeptical  mind  that  the  belief  in  a  close  racial  kin- 
ship between  all  the  Aryan-speaking  nations  is  a  mere 
fiction  refuted  by  incontrovertible  facts.  There  exists  an 
Aryan  language,  but  no  Aryan  race.  And  as  the  fiction 
of  an  Aryan  race  has  in  the  light  of  careful  inquiry  van- 
ished like  a  mist,  so  has  the  myth  of  a  Semitic  race 
recently  been  condemned  by  the  spirit  of  true  knowledge 
and  made  to  pass  into  the  limbo  of  exploded  delusions. 
Eight  nations,  the  Babylonians,  the  Assyrians,  the 
Hebrews,  the  southern  Arabs  or  Sabaeans,  the  Phenicians, 
the  Armenians,  the  Abyssinians,  and  the  Arabs  proper,  are 
known  to  have  spoken  or  still  to  speak  languages  so  closely 


232 

related  that  they  may  be  regarded  as  merely  dialects  of 
one  language.  In  their  vocabulary,  in  their  grammatical 
structure,  and  above  all  in  the  law  that  every  root  must 
consist  of  three  consonants,  they  form  among  them- 
selves the  most  intimate  unity  and  stand  in  striking  con- 
trast to  all  other  languages.  From  the  community  of 
speech  the  deduction  has  been  made  that  all  the  above- 
mentioned  nations  belonged  to  the  same  race,  the  Semitic 
race.  But  the  facts  brought  out  by  the  most  searching 
investigations  of  the  foremost  anthropologists  of  our  time 
flatly  contradicts  this  assumption.  Sixty  thousand  heads 
or  skulls  belonging  to  those  various  nations  have  been 
examined  with  circle  and  tape-measure,  and*  the  result  has 
been  unot  unity  of  race,  but  a  bewildering  variety  of  racial 
characteristics."  Only  the  Bedouins  of  Arabia  form  a 
surprising  exception.  They  alone  can  be  regarded  as  a 
physically  homogeneous  race,  among  whom  the  variations 
are  reduced  almost  to  a  minimum.  Just  as  their  speech, 
though  in  a  literary  sense  two  thousand  years  younger 
than  Babylonia,  has,  with  wonderful  tenacity,  preserved 
the  oldest  and  fullest  forms  of  the  original  Semitic  lan- 
guages, so  do  they  in  their  physical  qualities  represent  the 
genuine  Semitic  race  in  almost  absolute  purity.  They 
have  invariably  long  and  narrowed  heads,  as  they  appear 
depicted  on  numerous  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt.  This 
goes  to  prove  that  the  Bedouins  of  today  are  the  lineal 
and  unmodified  descendants  of  the  primitive  inhabitants  of 
Arabia.  These  Arabs  are  without  exception  of  a  dark 
complexion  with  black  eyes  and  black  hair.  But,  what 
is  most  to  be  noted  is  the  fact  that  the  Arabs  have 
short  and  small  noses,  which  are  hardly  curved  at  all. 
They  form  in  every  respect  a  striking  contrast  to  what  the 
vulgar  regard  as  the  typical  curved  Jewish  nose.  The 
physical  traits  of  these  genuine  and  unmixed  Semites  seem 
to  connect  them,  in  some  as  yet  unaccountable  way,  with 
the  long-headed  and  dark-skinned  Iberian  race,  which,  in 


233 

prehistoric  times,  occupied  England  and  many  other  parts 
of  Europe. 

Which  of  the  so-called  Semitic  nations,  living  or 
departed,  does  or  did,  in  its  racial  characteristics,  most 
closely  resemble  these  pure  Arabs?  Only  the  ancient 
Phenicians  can  be  looked  upon  as  true  Semites,  as  the  full 
brothers  of  the  Arabs.  Many  Phenician  skulls  have  been 
most  carefully  examined  by  eminent  anthropologists,  and 
bear  out  the  testimony  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  on 
which  Phenicians  are  represented  as  pronounced  long- 
heads, and  otherwise  showing  the  distinguishing  marks  of 
the  pure  Semitic  or  unmixed  Arabic  stock.  Now,  what 
has  anthropology,  after  years  of  most  conscientious  search- 
ing, after  collating  and  comparing  many  thousands  of  facts, 
ascertained  regarding  the  Hebrews  and  Syrians,  both  of 
ancient  times  and  of  the  present  day?  Are  the  Syrians, 
are  the  Jews  pure  Semites,  or  even  largely  Semitic?  There 
are  numerous  and  life-like  representations  of  Hebrews  and 
Syrians  on  the  monuments  of  ancient  Egypt.  Those 
carefully-drawn  pictures  of  the  Egyptian  artists  of  Hebrews 
and  Syrians  tally  to  perfection  with  the  observations  made 
by  modern  investigators  on  Syrians  and  Jews.  And  what 
do  we  learn  from  both  these  reliable  sources  of  information? 
Only  five  per  cent,  of  the  Syrians  and  the  Jews  are  found 
to  be  true  long-heads,  and  to  bear  the  other  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  the  genuine  Semites.  Stranger  still,  fully  eleven 
per  cent,  of  the  Jews  and  Syrians  have  blue  eyes  and  blonde 
hair,  and  display  the  other  characteristics  of  the  Scandinav- 
ians and  the  fair  North  Germans.  No  less  than  fifty  per 
cent,  are  veritable  short-heads,  and  consequently  do  not 
belong  to  the  Semitic  race.  Of  these  a  good  many  are  the 
happy  possessors  of  so-called  typical  Jewish  noses.  How 
came  there  to  be  eleven  per  cent,  blue-eyed  and  blonde- 
haired  genuine  Aryans  among  the  Jews  and  the  Syrians? 
Fortunately,  the  ancient  Egyptians  have  preserved  for  us 
on  their  imperishable  monuments  a  clear  and  decisive 
answer  to  this  important  query.  The  Amorites,  one  of  the 


234 

seven  nations  that  inhabited  Palestine  before  and  after  the 
invasion  of  the  Israelites,  are  depicted  on  those  monuments 
as  tall  white-skinned,  blue-eyed,  and  blonde-haired  men. 
These  Amorites  are  called  in  Egyptian  Tamehu,  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Northland.  These  Tarnehu  or  Northmen  are 
described  by  the  Egyptian  writers  as  white  savages,  who 
were  dressed  in  skins  and,  in  Indian  fashion,  adorned  their 
heads  with  feathers.  It  is  certainly  no  disgrace  to  the 
blue-eyed  and  blonde-haired  among  the  English,  the  Amer- 
icans, and  the  Germans,  that  their  ancestors  were  living  in 
Europe,  in  North  Africa,  and  Palestine  as  savages  long 
after  the  Babylonians  and  the  Egyptians  had  reared  the 
grand  edifices  of  their  civilization,  that  their  forefathers 
were  dressed  in  skins  and  dwelt  in  caves  at  the  time  Moses 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  the  kingdom  of  righteousness 
and  humanity.  Nor  are  we  Jews  specially  proud  of  the 
fact  that  a  good  deal  of  the  blue  blood  of  the  blue-eyed 
Aryans  is  rolling  in  our  veins,  almost  as  much  of  it  as  is  to 
be  found  in  southern  Germany,  in  many  parts  of  England, 
and  in  most  parts  of  America.  We  only  wish  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  they  who  pride  themselves  on  being 
Aryans  did  not  receive  a  charter  from  nature  to  be  exclus- 
ive standard-bearers  of  civilization  and  the  privileged  crea- 
tors of  the  arts  and  the  wisdom  of  a  higher  life.  At  the 
same  time  we  desire  to  point  to  the  fact  that  we  Jews  are 
after  all,  by  the  ties  of  blood,  second  or  third  cousins  to  the 
very  people  who,  as  Aryans,  regard  us  as  Semitic  aliens. 

But  whence  do  the  fifty  per  cent,  short-heads  among  the 
Jews  and  Syrians  come,  who  are  evidently  no  Semites? 
Prof.  Felix  von  Luschan,  whose  data  I  am  freely  using 
and  whose  lines  of  reasoning  I  am  closely  following  in  this 
lecture,  has,  in  a  paper  recently  read  before  the  German 
Anthropological  Society,  given  a  satisfactory  solution  of 
this  great  problem.  The  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  Syrians  and 
Jews  that  have  short  heads,  dark  eyes,  and  dark  hair  are 
the  descendants  of  the  once  great,  very  numerous,  and 


235 

powerful  Hittites,  one  of  the  seven  nations  found  by  the 
Semitic  Israelites  when  they  conquered  Canaan.  The  Hit- 
tites belonged  to  the  wide-spread  race  called  by  Luschan 
the  Armenoid,  by  Hornmel  the  Alarodian  stock.  The  mod- 
ern Armenians  are  the  purest  representatives  of  that  race. 
The  Armenians  have  short  heads,  dark  eyes,  dark  hair,  and 
the  most  pronounced  typical  Jewish  noses.  They  resemble 
in  every  respect  the  ancient  Hittites,  as  represented  on 
numerous  Hittite  monuments.  The  same  race  forms  the 
main  stock  of  the  population  of  Asia  Minor.  Most  of  the 
Greeks  and  Turks  bear  the  features  of  that  race.  The 
ancient  Pelasgians,  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Greece, 
were  a  branch  of  the  same  race.  The  latter,  again,  are 
very  probably  identical  with  the  Ligurians,  whose  descend- 
ants form  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  southern  Italy, 
and  make  up  a  very  large  part  of  the  French  and  Swiss. 

The  result  of  the  foregoing  discussion  is :  The  so-called 
Aryans  consist  of  four  distinct  races;  the  Semites  do  by  no 
means  form  a  racial  unit,  and,  lastly,  we  Jews  are  far  from 
being  a  pure  race.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  a  very  mixed 
race.  Three  elements  have  entered  into  the  composition  of 
the  Jewish  people:  the  true  Semitic  race,  the  blue-eyed,  or, 
if  you  choose,  the  Aryan  Amorites,  and  the  Hittites,  have 
mixed  their  blood  to  produce  the  Jewish  or  Israelitish  peo- 
ple. The  Aryan  Amorites  and  the  Armenian  Hittites  were 
turned  into  Israelites,  into  worshipers  of  Yahve  and  follow- 
ers of  Moses,  by  a  small  but  masterful  Semitic  tribe,  the 
Bene  Israel.  Many  a  Jew  will  doubtless  groan  in  spirit  or 
be  filled  with  indignation  on  being  told  that  he  shall  no 
longer  vaingloriously  boast  of  being  a  member  of  the 
purest  race  on  earth!  "What  are  we  then,"  many  of  these 
race-Jews  will  cry,  "if  we  are  not  unmixed  and  lineal 
descendants  of  one  of  the  tribes  of  Israel?  Alack  the  day! 
We  are  told  by  a  teacher  of  the  religion  of  Israel  that  we 
are  not  pure  Israelites.  All  our  glory  will  depart  from  us, 
and  the  faith  of  the  prophets  will  lose  its  hold  on  the  Jews, 


236 

if  they  should  come  to  think  that  we  are  after  all  a  very 
mixed  race,  if  we  can  not  all  lay  claim  to  beinglineal  descend- 
ants of  those  that  went  forth  from  Egypt."  To  this 
lament  of  race-Jews,  I  reply:  Let  the  voice  of  your  igno- 
rance and  irreligion  be  hushed!  There  has  never  been  a 
great  people  on  earth  that  was  of  an  unmixed  race.  Only 
among  savages  do  you  find  pure  races.  The  English, 
French,  and  German  nations,  on  whose  shoulders  rests  the 
civilization  of  Europe,  have  been  composed  out  of  four  dis- 
tinct races  at  least.  The  valiant,  free,  rich,  and  progress- 
ive American  people  is  the  most  mixed  of  all  peoples. 
There  is  hardly  a  race  on  earth  that  has  not  contributed 
some  of  its  blood  toward  the  making  of  this  youngest 
nation.  All  the  greatest  nations  known  to  history:  the 
civilizers  of  the  world,  the  Hellenes  ;  the  conquerors  of  the 
world,  the  Romans;  the  Egyptians,  before  whose  stupend- 
ous works  we  stand  in  speechless  wonder;  the  Babyloni- 
ans and  the  Assyrians,  who  gave  to  the  world  the  art  of 
writing,  of  architecture,  and  sculpture,  the  science  of 
astronomy  and  the  elements  of  mathematics — all  grew  out 
of  an  amalgamation  of  various  races.  And  should  the 
people  of  Israel,  that  has  given  to  the  world  something 
more  precious  than  all  the  gifts  bestowed  by  all  other 
nations,  namely,  the  belief  in  the  one  only  God,  the  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  Father  of  all  men,  the  belief 
in  Yahve,  the  righteous  and  merciful,  that  has  given  birth 
to  the  Bible,  and  enriched  the  families  of  the  earth  with 
the  highest  spiritual  treasures,  should  that  people  alone 
have  formed  an  exception  to  the  universal  rule  and  done 
its  life-work  as  a  pure  race?  Savages  exist  as  a  race  just 
as  animals  form  distinct  species.  All  the  civilized  nations 
of  the  earth,  however,  were  welded  together  into  a  living 
unity  by  spiritual  forces. 

The  Israelites  were,  closely  considered,  no  people  in  the 
narrow  and  accepted  sense.  They  were  from  trie  very 
beginning  a  religious  community.  It  was  the  supreme 


237 

genius  of  one  man,  of  Moses,  that  delivered  a  few  small 
Semitic  tribes  and  a  multitude  of  non-Semitic  people  from 
the  bondage  of  Eygpt.  It  was  through  him  that  the  infinite 
mystery  of  all  manifested  itself  for  the  first  time  as  Yahve, 
the  just  God,  who  loves  the  stranger,  pities  the  oppressed, 
and  wreaks  vengeance  on  the  cruel  oppressor.  For  the 
first  time  in  history  oppression  exercised  in  the  name  of 
race  and  nationality,  were  resisted  and  overcome  in  the 
name  of  human  rights,  defended  by  a  God  that  loves  right 
and  hates  wrong.  It  was  on  Mount  Sinai  that  the  hero  of 
justice  promulgated  the  leading  principles  of  social  and 
individual  morality  as  a  revelation  of  the  Deity.  It  was 
there  that  he  made  a  covenant  between  Yahve  and  the 
freedmen,  not  as  between  a  tribe  and  its  divinity,  but  as 
between  the  redeemed  ones  and  their  Redeemer,  between  a 
God  of  righteousness  and  the  people  that  was  to  walk  in 
the  ways  of  Justice.  With  this  step  taken  by  Moses,  the 
spirit  of  mankind  broke  through  the  bounds  of  race  and 
made  the  attempt  to  establish  a  commonwealth  on  the 
foundation  of  human  rights  as  laid  down  and  made  sacred 
and  inviolable  by  the  will  of  Yahve.  The  people  of  Israel, 
as  fashioned  and  inspired  by  Moses,  had  in  itself  a  spiritual 
power  of  attraction  and  assimilation.  No  race  and  no 
class  could  be  excluded  from  a  community  which  had  for 
its  animating  and  unifying  principle  the  belief  in  Yahve, 
the  Protector  of  the  weak  and  oppressed  and  the  Lover  of 
right.  As  the  Israelites  marched  through  the  wilderness 
they  attached  to  themselves  a  number  of  Midianitish  tribes. 
Though  by  no  means  a  numerous  people,  they  conquered 
Canaan  and  made  it  the  land  of  Israel  and  of  Yahve,  not 
so  much  by  the  prowess  of  their  arms,  as  by  the  spiritual 
power  inherent  in  their  religion.  The  sever;  nations  were 
not  annihilated,  as  a  late  legend  would  make  us  believe,  but 
were  assimilated  by  the  Israelitish  spirit  and  incorporated 
into  the  people  of  Yahve.  Translated  to  Babylonia,  the 
Jews  converted  the  population  of  whole  provinces  to 


Yahvism  and  incorporated  them  into  the  body  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Only  about  fifty  thousand  Jews  returned 
from  the  Babylonian  captivity.  But  in  spite  of  the  vehe- 
ment protests  of  the  puritan  nationalists  against  intermar- 
riage, nearly  all  the  pagan  inhabitants  of  Palestine  were 
transformed  into  Yahve-worshiping  Israelites.  In  every 
province  and  city  of  the  Roman  empire  numerous  Gentiles 
embraced  the  faith  of  Israel  and  formed  flourishing  congre- 
gations. And  the  blood  of  these  Gentiles  still  rolls  in  our 
veins.  In  a  modified  form  as  trinitarian  Christianity,  the 
religious  spirit  of  Israel  has  conquered  and  assimilated  the 
best  part  of  mankind  and  made  it  Israelitish.  But  Yahv- 
ism, pure  and  simple,  did  not  cease  to  gain  accessions. 
The  blood  of  the  converted  Turanian  Khazaars  has  mixed 
with  the  blood  of  the  Russian  Jews.  Teutonic,  Celtic, 
Slavic,  and  Latin  are  elements  that  have  entered  into  our 
composition.  The  very  vigor  and  vitality,  physical  and 
mental,  of  the  Jews  is,  next  to  the  perennially  active  influ- 
ences of  their  moralizing  religion,  due  to  the  fact  that  they 
are  an  extremely  mixed  race. 

Some  of  those  who  hear,  and  many  more  who  will  read, 
this  lecture,  will  exclaim:  "If  we  are  not  Jews  by  race,  if 
we  are  not  Jews  by  the  sacred  and  indissoluble  ties  of 
blood,  why  should  we  continue  to  be  Jews,  why  should  we 
hold  to  Judaism?"  To  such  we  answer:  "If  you  are  not 
Jews  by  faith,  but  by  race,  the  sooner  you  will  depart  from 
us,  the  better  it  will  be  for  you,  the  ^better  it  will  be  for 
the  mission  of  Yahve,  for  the  religion  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  the  religion  of  the  psalmists  and  sages  who 
worked  and  prayed,  who  lived  and  died  not  to  glorify  a 
race  but  to  glorify  the  God  of  humanity.  If  I  knew  that 
there  is  not  a  drop  of  Semitic,  not  aj  drop  of  Jewish  blood 
in  my  veins,  I  would  yet  cling  with  every  fiber  of  my 
being,  as  long  as  there  was  breath  in  me,  to  the  religious 
community  of  Israel,  to  the  Church  of  Yahvism,  to  the 
monotheistic  faith  of  pure  humanity." 


239 

Abraham  is  not  our  father,  Isaac  did  not  beget  us, 
Jacob  we  know  not,  but  Yahve,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  Father  of  all  men,  the  Father  of  justice  and 
mercy,  He  is  our  Father  and  our  God,  He  is  the  Redeemer 
and  Guide  of  spiritual  and  universal  Israel  from  genera- 
tion to  generation. 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MAC 
CABEAN  STRUGGLE. 


TTTE  celebrate  this  week  the  half-feast  of  Harmkkah,  or 
^  ^  the  feast  of  the  Maccabees.  It  was  instituted  many 
years  ago,  to  commemorate  an  event  which  for  good  and 
also  for  evil  has  exercised  an  incalculable  influence  on  the 
religious  and  moral  destinies  of  the  human  race.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  dreadful  persecution  which  the  Jews  suffered 
for  the  sake  of  their  faith  and  laws  under  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  and  the  heroic  uprising  of  the  people  under 
the  leadership  of  the  immortal  Maccabees,  saved  the 
religion  of  Israel  from  imminent  death.  The  battles  of 
Emmaus,  Bethzur,  and  Eleasa  decided  the  fate  of  Hebrew 
monotheism  as  against  paganism,  just  as  the  battles  of 
Marathon,  Salamis,  and  Platsea  preserved  to  mankind  the 
blessings  of  Greek  culture.  On  the  other  hand,  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  not  only  kept  alive  the  religious  truths  and 
moral  ideas  of  Yahvism,  to  be  transmitted  as  a  precious 
heritage  to  generations  unborn,  but  it  also  hallowed  every 
priestly  rite  and  custom,  consecrated  every  ceremony,  and 
gave  a  divine  sanction  to  every  dietary  law.  A  fearful 
price  had  been  paid  for  the  preservation  of  the  Mosaic  and 
the  traditional  laws.  Every  part,  therefore,  came  to  be 
regarded  as  of  equal  religious  importance  and  of  imperish- 
able ethical  value.  The  yoke  of  the  Law  was,  in  conse- 
quence thereof,  fastened  more  firmly  than  ever  upon  the 
neck  of  the  worshipers  of  Yahve,  and  was  not  to  be 
removed  for  thousands  of  years  to  come.  Only  a  few 
enlightened  men  were  henceforth  able  to  make  a  clear  dis- 
tinction between  eternal  moral  obligations  and  transitory 


241 

ceremonial  institutions  and  ordinances.  When  the  times 
were  ripe  for  Yahvism  to  go  forth  from  Zion,  and  bring 
its  glad  tidings  to  all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  it  was  unable 
to  move  freely  forward,  being  weighed  down  by  the  cere- 
monial laws ;  it  could  not  change  its  external  forms  and 
adapt  itself  to  new  conditions  and  a  larger  mission. 

Glorious  beyond  praise  were  the  victories  won  by  the 
Maccabean  warriors  against  overwhelming  odds.  The 
inspiring  personality  and  military  genius  of  Judas  the 
Hammer,  turned  pious  scholars  and  peaceful  rustics  into  a 
band  of  heroes,  whom  he  pitted  with  marvelous  success 
against  the  trained  Greek  armies  of  the  king.  They 
snatched  the  Jewish  nationality,  which  the  furious  tyrant 
had  determined  to  exterminate,  from  the  jaws  of  death. 
They  secured  the  religious  freedom  and  the  political  inde- 
pendence of  their  country  for  about  a  century,  and  made 
the  name  of  the  Jewish  people,  so  long  held  in  contempt 
by  the  ruling  pagans,  a  terror  to  the  surrounding  nations. 
But  while  these  achievements  must  be  regarded  as  unmixed 
blessings,  when  viewed  from  the  purely  national  stand- 
point, they  proved  for  ages  to  come  a  fatal  hindrance  to 
the  spiritual  mission,  to  the  Messianic  destiny,  of  Israel. 
For  they  intensified  a  thousandfold  the  already  exist- 
ing antipathies  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  bred  in 
the  latter  that  spirit  of  aversion  and  implacable  hatred 
of  which  we,  after  two  thousand  years,  are  still  reaping 
the  bitter  fruits.  When,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  the 
mountain  of  the  house  of  Yahve  was  to  be  established 
at  the  head  of  the  mountains,  and  exalted  above  the 
hills,  when  all  nations  were  to  flow  unto  it,  and  many 
kingdoms  were  to  say:  "Come,  let  us  go  to  the  mount- 
ain of  Yahve,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob,  that 
He  may  teach  us  of  His  ways,  and  that  we  may  walk  in 
His  paths,"  then  mountains  of  inherited  hates,  misunder- 
standings, and  prejudices  rose  between  Israel,  the  foreor- 
dained teacher  and  redeemer,  and  the  tribes  that  he  was  to 
gather  into  the  fold  of  Yahve. 


242 

It  was  a  great  historical  calamity,  of  dire  consequences 
to  all  times  and  races,  that  Greek  and  Jew  met  in  deadly 
conflict,  the  Greek  as  a  ruthless  persecutor  and  murderous 
oppressor,  and  the  Jew  as  the  desperate  defender  of  his 
spiritual  possessions  and  of  his  national  existence.  The 
twenty  or  more  years  of  inhuman  persecution  and  bloody 
warfare,  full  of  shame  and  crime  on  the  part  of  the  Greek, 
full  of  fervid  enthusiasm,  of  heroic  endeavor,  and  death- 
defying  fanatical  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Jew, 
engendered  feelings  of  mutual  detestation  in  the  com- 
batants, inflamed  the  breast  of  the  Greeks  with  inex- 
tinguishable hatred  for  their  antagonists,  and  caused  a 
wide  and  deep  chasm  to  yawn  between  the  two  greatest 
nations  of  antiquity.  Henceforth  the  Greeks  were  irrec- 
oncilable and  conscienceless  Jew-haters  and  Jew-baiters. 
It  was  their  fertile  imagination,  inspired  by  deadly  hatred, 
that  invented  those  dreadful  lies  and  calumnies  against 
the  Jews  which,  with  but  slight  modifications,  are  to  this 
day  the  stock  in  trade  of  our  enemies  in  every  land.  It 
was  they  that  spread  through  the  world  those  envenomed 
prejudices  which  still  poison  our  lives.  It  was  they  who 
inoculated  Christianity,  for  a  time  the  faithful  and  lov- 
ing daughter  of  Israel,  with  the  virus  of  fatal  enmity. 
They  had  the  ear  and  held  the  minds  of  every  people 
belonging  to  the  Mediterranean  circle  of  civilization. 
Their  language  was  understood  and  spoken,  and  their  writ- 
ings were  read,  by  the  educated  classes  of  every  country 
and  nation.  Greek  colonies  existed  in  almost  every  part 
of  the  civilized  world,  mostly  in  close  local  contact  and 
hostile  rivalry  with  Jewish  colonies.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  their  violent  antipathies  against  the  Jews  and  their 
malignant  slanders  of  the  Jewish  character  and  religion 
spread  from  people  to  people  and  from  kingdom  to  king- 
dom, and  were  transmitted  as  an  inherited  curse  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  even  to  the  children  of  our  own 
times.  On  the  other  hand,  the  most  pious  and  zealous 


243 

representatives  of  the  Jewish  people  could  not  help  remem- 
bering, with  a  sense  of  bitter  resentment,  the  fearful  spirit- 
ual and  physical  misery,  which  the  cruel  despotism  of  the 
Greeks  had  brought  upon  them.  They  could  not  but 
bear  in  mind  that  contact  with  Greek  culture  and  adop- 
tion of  its  views  and  ways,  had  caused  a  large  part  of  the 
Israelitish  nation,  the  wealthiest  and  most  aristocratic  part 
of  it,  to  become  apostates  from  their  faith  and  traitors  to 
their  country.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  they  held 
Greek  customs  and  manners,  Greek  modes  of  life,  in 
abhorrence,  and  were  sore  afraid  of  Greek  speech,  of 
Hellenic  art  and  science,  poetry  and  philosophy,  as  leading 
to  idolatry  and  its  vices  and  abominations.  Though  it 
was  impossible  wholly  to  stem  the  tide  of  Greek  influence 
on  the  life  and  thought  of  Israel,  still  there  was  a  deep  alien- 
ation from,  and  invincible  distrust  of,  Hellenic  civilization 
in  the  hearts  of  the  most  vigorous  leaders  of  Palestinian 
Judaism. 

Alas  for  the  follies,  the  passions,  and  the  crimes  of  men, 
alas  for  national  hates  and  strifes,  which  caused  the  civili- 
zation of  Greece  and  that  of  Judea  to  stand  apart,  and  observe 
towards  each  other  for  centuries  an  attitude  of  mutual  con- 
tempt and  hostility !  Do  they  not  together  form  the  whole 
of  humanity?  The  genius  of  Athens  and  the  genius  of 
Jerusalem  complement  each  other,  each  supplies  the  ele- 
ments of  higher  life  that  the  other  lacks.  Is  it  not  the  aim 
of  modern  civilization  to  make  one  music  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  Israel  and  the  glorious  artistic  life  of  Hellas?  Does 
not  the  process  of  history  consist  in  blending  the  ideas 
and  ideals  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  psalmists,  and  lawgivers 
with  the  imperishable  ideas  and  ideals  of  the  Hellenic 
poets,  artists,  philosophers,  and  to  weave  them  into  a  higher 
unity  and  harmony?  This  all-important  historical  pro- 
cess had  indeed  begun  to  work  itself  out  quietly  but 
progressively  since  Alexander  the  Great  had  led  the 
rich  stream  of  Greek  civilization  into  Asia  and  northern 


244 

Africa.  The  Eastern  lands  were  being  fertilized  with  new 
elements  of  intellectual,  poetical,  and  artistic  life.  The 
melodious  and  rich  language  of  Hellas,  the  most  perfect  of 
all  idioms,  her  wonderful  literature  radiant  with  incompar- 
able beauty  and  teeming  with  treasures  of  wisdom,  the 
refined  modes  of  Greek  life,  the  grace  and  elegance  of 
Greek  manners,  the  wit  and  charm  of  Greek  conversation, 
the  vivacity,  suppleness,  and  keenness  of  the  Greek  intel- 
lect cast  a  spell  over  the  mind  of  every  people  that  came 
in  contact  with  representatives  of  that  sunny  race.  The 
Israelites  who  dwelt  in  Egypt  and  Palestine  formed  no 
exception.  They,  too,  felt  the  irresistible  charms  of  Greek 
life.  They  had  to  confess  to  themselves,  that  there  was 
much  in  Hellenic  civilization  which  was  superior  to  that 
of  any  other  people.  There  was  sweetness,  loveliness,  and 
beauty  attached  to  Hellenic  culture  which  could  not  but 
profoundly  impress  the  most  open  and  sensitive  minds 
among  Judeans.  The  upper  classes  learned  to  speak,  to 
read,  and  to  write  Greek.  The  poetry  and  philosophy  of 
the  ruling  race  exercised  a  stimulating  and  rejuvenating 
influence  on  Hebrew  poetry  and  speculation.  Some  of  the 
most  original  and  profoundest  works,  some  of  the  greatest 
masterpieces  of  Hebrew  literature,  saw  the  light  during  the 
Grecian  period  before  the  era  of  suspicion  and  hate  had  set 
in.  Greek  ways  and  manners  were  slowly  and  impercept- 
ibly adopted  by  all  classes.  The  more  tinged  one  was  with 
the  elements  of  Hellenism,  the  greater  was  his  claim  to 
general  culture.  The  language,  the  intellectual  and  mate- 
rial civilization  of  Greece,  comprised  under  the  general 
name  of  Hellenism,  were  not  only  cosmopolitan  elements, 
shared  in  more  or  less  by  all  the  subject  races,  but  they  con- 
stituted the  only  bond  of  Union  which  held  together  the 
diverse  and  discordant  countries  and  nations  that  formed 
the  kingdom  of  the  Seleucidae.  The  more  Hellenized  a 
people  was,  the  higher  was  the  position  it  occupied  in  the 
empire,  the  nearer  it  approached  as  to  dignity  and  rights 


245 

the  imperial  Hellenic  race.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that 
there  existed  a  strong  Hellenistic  party  in  Judea.  We 
ought  to  divest  ourselves  of  the  violent  prejudices  which 
we  have,  from  the  days  of  our  childhood,  imbibed  against 
that  party.  It  was  originally  far  from  being  composed  of 
a  set  of  traitors  or  apostates.  The  highest  aristocracy  of 
the  nation  belonged  to  it,  the  high-priestly  family  of  Judea 
that  traced  its  descent  back  to  Aaron,  the  brother  of  Moses. 
Since  the  return  from  the  Babylonian  captivity  the 
Zadokites  were  the  hereditary  high  priests  and  political 
chiefs  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  pious  high  priest  Onias 
and  his  brother  and  successor,  Jason,  were  zealous  friends 
and  promoters  of  Hellenism  and  the  acknowledged  heads  of 
the  party.  Surely  the  sons  of  Zadok,  whose  exalted  posi- 
tion depended  on  the  religion  of  Yahve  and  on  the  people's 
adherence  to  the  laws  and  teachings  of  Moses,  can  not  have 
intended  to  undermine  the  very  ground  on  which  they  and 
their  power  were  standing.  That  party  was  originally 
actuated  by  motives  of  true  patriotism  and  inspired  by 
ideas  of  generous  progress.  While  clinging  to  the  God  of 
their  fathers  and  to  the  laws  of  righteousness,  mercy,  and 
holiness,  they  wished  to  deliver  their  people  from  the  state 
of  appalling  isolation  in  which  it  found  itself.  Their 
neighbors,  the  Samaritans,  the  Ammonites,  the  Moabites, 
Idumeans  and  Philistines,  hated  the  Jews  with  a  deadly 
inherited  hatred.  The  Greeks  despised  them  as  barbarians 
and  ridiculed  their  peculiar  customs  and  manners.  The 
Hellenists  determined  to  bridge  over  the  gulf  which  sepa- 
rated the  Jews  from  the  Gentiles.  By  adopting  as  much 
of  Greek  culture  and  Hellenic  modes  of  life  as  was  compat- 
ible with  Israel's  religion  and  morality  they  hoped  to 
remove  from  their  people  the  reproach  of  national  exclus- 
iveness  and  barbarism,  so  that  it  would  come  to  be  treated 
as  the  social  and  political  peer  of  the  ruling  nation.  But 
they  made  a  grievous  mistake  in  the  means  they  chose  to 
bring  about  the  consummation  so  devoutly  wished  for  by 


246 

them.  They  were  impatient  of  the  slow  pace  of  time, 
and  unwise  and  violent  in  their  measures.  Instead  of  let- 
ting spiritual  forces  and  the  accumulative  influences  of 
time  work  out  the  process  of  conciliation,  by  which  both 
the  Israelitish  and  the  Hellenic  minds  were  to  be  quickened 
with  a  richer  life,  they  resorted  to  purely  external  meas- 
ures of  assimilation,  that  were  regarded  by  the  puritan 
party  with  loathing  and  hatred. 

The  Greeks  assigned  to  gymnastic  exercises  the  fore- 
most place  in  their  scheme  of  education.  They  looked 
upon  athletic  sports  as  the  most  serious  business  of  life. 
A  great  athlete  was  honored  as  a  national  hero.  Pub- 
lic games,  such  as  the  Olympian,  were  held  at  stated 
periods  in  the  mother  country,  and  wherever  else  Greeks 
were  settled.  Whoever  proved  himself  in  those  national 
contests  to  be  the  best  wrestler,  the  most  accomplished 
boxer,  the  most  skillful  thrower  of  the  discus,  was 
crowned  as  victor,  was  celebrated  in  dithyrambic  songs; 
statues  were  erected  to  him  and  he  and  his  family  were 
exempt  from  taxation.  Only  born  Greeks  were  permitted 
to  take  part  in  those  games.  Any  non-Hellenist,  who  was 
allowed  to  participate  in  them,  was  by  this  special  privilege 
adopted  into  the  ranks  of  the  noble  Greek  race.  At  the 
urgent  request  of  the  high  priest  Jason,  King  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  granted  to  all  such  Jews  as  gave  proof  of  being 
skilled  in  Greek  athletics,  the  rights  of  full  Macedonian 
citizenship,  and  the  privilege  of  taking  part  in  all  public 
assemblies  and  the  national  games.  Then  Jason  and  the 
Hellenists  resolved  to  open  gymnasia  in  Judea,  in  order  to 
obtain  by  this  means  the  higher  citizenship  for  their  com- 
patriots, and  to  abate  the  contempt  in  which  they  were 
held.  In  the  year  174  B.  C.  a  gymnasium  was  opened  for 
young  men  and  boys  in  Jerusalem  in  the  Acra,  northwest 
from  the  temple.  But  the  puritans  were  filled  with  dismay 
and  indignation.  For  a  Greek  gymnasium  was  not  like  one 
of  ours.  The  very  etymology  of  the  word,  which  is  derived 


247 

from  gymnos,  nude,  will  of  itself  explain  why  those  games  so 
deeply  offended  their  moral  sensibilities.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that  no  civilized  people  of  today  would  allow  such  gym- 
nasia to  exist  for  one  day.  The  modern  Christian  nations 
are  simply  not  Greeks  but  Jewish  puritans  in  this  respect 
as  well  as  in  many  others.  Those  puritans  were  God-fear- 
ing, sternly  moral,  simple,  pure,  abstemious,  and  hard- 
working people.  It  was  entirely  indifferent  to  them 
whether  the  idolaters  despised  or  respected  them,  whether 
they  loved  or  hated  them.  They  knew  the  moral  rotten- 
ness of  the  Greeks,  they  were  fully  aware  of  the  unmen- 
tionable abominations  practiced  by  those  graceful  and  ele- 
gant Greeks,  and  held  their  manners  and  ways,  their  whole 
conduct  of  life  in  sovereign  contempt.  They  feared  con- 
tact with  them  as  a  source  of  moral  contamination.  No 
wonder,  therefore,  that  the  sight  of  Jewish  young  men  exer- 
cising in  the  Greek  fashion  put  their  sense  of  shame  to 
blush,  and  caused  them  to  burn  with  righteous  anger. 
Fierce  strife,  mutual  recriminations,  and  partisan  hates 
filled  Jerusalem  and  all  Judea. 

The  Hellenists  became  ever  bitterer  against  what  they 
called  the  blind  fanaticism  and  narrow  exclusiveness  of  the 
Assideans  or  Puritans.  In  course  of  a  few  years  the  most 
radical  among  them  gained  the  upper  hand.  The  most 
unscrupulous,  fanatical,  and  cruel,  of  them  all,  Menelaus, 
bought  the  high-priesthood  from  the  king,  although  he 
does  not  even  seem  to  have  been  of  priestly  descent.  Being 
intensely  hated  by  the  people  as  a  sacrilegious  plunderer 
of  the  Temple,  as  a  murderer  and  blasphemer,  he  became  a 
relentless  enemy  of  his  nation  and  religion.  Vile  apostate 
that  he  was,  he  persuaded  the  king  that  the  laws  of  Moses 
were  full  of  hatred  to  mankind,  forbidding  the  Jews  to  sit  at 
the  same  table  with  Gentiles,  and  to  do  aught  but  evil  to 
strangers.  He,  therefore,  advised  the  king  to  abolish  the 
whole  Mosaic  Law.  Thus  Menelaus  hoped  to  turn  the  Jews 
intoGreeksby destroyingtheirfaith  and  national  laws.  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanes  was  senseless  and  cruel  enough  to  listen 


248 

to  such  advice  and  carry  it  into  practice.  The  king  was  a 
strange  admixture  of  madness  and  statesmanship,  of  egregi- 
ous folly  and  keen  prudence.  He  was  an  inhuman  despot 
and  a  pleasant  boon  companion,  a  reckless  spendthrift  and 
yet  full  of  insatiable  avarice.  He  believed  in  no  God,  and 
yet  shed  human  blood  like  water  in  order  to  convert  the 
most  faithful  and  inoffensive  of  his  subjects  into  worship- 
ers of  the  Greek  gods.  As  the  Czar  of  Russia  is  trying 
to  prop  up  his  tottering  despotism  by  driving  all  his  sub- 
jects into  the  Greek  Church  or  driving  them  out  of  the 
land,  so  did  Antiochus  Epiphanes  hope  to  give  fresh  coher- 
ence to  his  fast  disintegrating  empire  by  means  of  a  forced 
unity  of  religion.  Hence,  he  issued  the  insensate  decree 
abolishing  the  religion  of  Israel.  The  sons  of  Israel  were 
forbidden  to  worship  Yahve  the  Holy  and  Righteous,  or 
to  observe  the  laws  of  Moses.  They  were  commanded  to 
adore  the  Olympian  Zeus.  His  statue  was  placed  on  the 
greater  altar  in  the  court  of  the  Sanctuary,  and  swine 
were  daily  offered  up  to  him.  Every  Jew  was  ordered  to 
abjure  his  faith,  burn  incense  and  sacrifice  to  idols,  and  in 
token  of  his  apostacy  to  eat  of  the  flesh  of  swine.  The 
practice  of  the  Abrahamitic  rite,  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  and  the  holidays,  and  abstinence  from  forbidden 
meats  were  most  severely  punished,  in  many  cases  with 
death.  Tens  of  thousands  submitted  to  the  decrees,  pur- 
chasing life  and  peace  at  the  price  of  faith  and  conscience. 
But  there  were  also  thousands  of  holy  men  and  women 
who  preferred  death  to  spiritual  suicide.  Many  suffered 
martyrdom,  many  expired  on  the  cross,  or  were  in  other 
ways  tortured  to  death.  The  inhuman  persecutors  strung 
up  many  heroic  women,  tying  their  dying  babes  to  the 
breast  of  their  agonized  mothers.  The  pious  fled  from  the 
towns  and  villages,  and  hid  themselves  in  caves.  Most  of 
them  were  massacred  or  burned  in  their  hiding-places,  on 
Sabbath  days,  when  they  would  not  raise  a  hand  to  defend 
themselves.  The  land  became  desolate,  Jerusalem  was 


249 

without  inhabitants,  save  the  Greek  garrisons  and  the  Hel- 
lenists, who  dwelt  in  the  Acropolis.  Such  infinite  woe 
had  the  Hellenistic  party  brought  upon  their  country  and 
their  people  through  their  reckless  and  fanatical  measures. 
The  people  of  Israel,  and  what  is  infinitely  more  precious, 
the  religion  of  the  prophets  seemed  doomed  to  perish.  To 
all  human  calculations  the  cause  of  Monotheism  was  hope- 
lessly lost. 

But  when  all  was  darkness  and  despair,  a  star  shone 
forth  from  Jacob,  and  a  savior  came  forth  from  Israel.  The 
priest  Mattathias  and  his  five  sons  took  up  arms  against  a 
host  of  evils,  and  by  heroically  opposing,  ended  them. 
They  gathered  the  scattered  sheep  of  Israel,  and  trans- 
formed them  into  irresistible  warriors.  They  rushed  with 
their  bare  bodies  against  the  mailed  ranks  of  the  Greek 
phalanx,  and  broke  them  to  pieces.  The  doves  chased  the 
vultures.  A  few  thousand  peasants,  scholars,  singers,  and 
priests  put  large  armies  of  Greek  veterans  to  flight.  For 
at  their  head  marched  the  five  Hasmonean  lions,  whose 
roar  terrified  the  foe.  They  all  lived  and  died  working 
out  the  salvation  of  the  Lord  unto  his  people  and  through 
it  unto  all  nations  and  times.  But  the  greatest  and  might- 
iest of  them  all  was  Judas  Maccabee. 

O  Judas  Maccabee,  glorious  hero,  fierce  as  a  lion  in 
battle,  gentle  as  a  dove  in  peace,  radiant  with  holiness, 
girt  with  strength,  crowned  with  all  the  attributes  of  man- 
hood, we,  the  latest-born  children  of  those  whom  then 
didst  lead  from  darkness  to  light,  from  shameful  oppres- 
sion to  victory,  we,  and  with  us  countless  myriads  of 
Christians,  who  adore  thy  God  and  seek  His  ways,  we  all 
bend  our  knee  to  thy  hallowed  name,  and  offer  the  tribute 
of  our  love  and  gratitude  at  the  shrine  of  thy  memory! 
We  see  thy  flashing  sword  dazzling  thy  eyes  of  thy  ene- 
mies. We  hear  thy  thundering  voice  marshaling  the  hosts 
of  Faith  and  Liberty  against  their  destroyers  and  the  mur- 
derers of  their  infants.  We  behold  thee  in  the  thick  of 


250 

battle,  surrounded  by  slain  foes  as  a  reaper  is  by  sheaves. 
Thine  eyes  shine  and  burn  like  two  stars.  Majesty  is 
seated  upon  thy  brow.  Thy  mighty  frame  bestrides  the 
earth,  a  born  king  of  men.  We  note  thee  watching  by 
the  camp-fires,  devising  new  victories.  Thy  great  soul 
communes  with  God  in  the  night,  it  bodies  forth  immor- 
tal songs,  those  melodious  psalms  that  have  been  ring- 
ing through  the  ages,  and  are  chanted  in  churches  and 
synagogues,  as  numerous  as  the  stars  of  heaven.  We  hear 
thee  pray  before  the  battle,  as  thou  kneelest  with  thy  host 
on  the  ground,  lifting  up  thy  heart  unto  heaven.  We  see 
thee  fight  thy  last  fatal  battle  on  the  field  of  Eleasa, 
deserted  by  those  who  ought  to  be  with  thee,  with  but 
eight  hundred  faithful  knights  of  the  spirit  around  thee. 
All  day  thou  strivest,  with  superhuman  valor  against  over- 
whelming forces.  Towards  evening  thy  enemies  beset 
thee  round  about.  Now  thou  fallest,  sweet  master,  high 
priest  of  God,  our  light  and  deliverer!  Thou  didst  not 
live  and  die  in  vain.  Thy  precious  blood  has  made  the 
earth  fruitful.  The  future  of  humanity  was  in  thy  keep- 
ing, and  nobly  didst  thou  discharge  thy  trust.  As  for  us, 
may  our  tongue  cleave  to  its  roof,  may  our  right  hand  for- 
get its  cunning,  if  we  ever  forsake  the  holy  cause  for 
which  thou  hast  laid  down  thy  heroic  life!  May  our  name 
become  a  byword  and  a  hissing  if  we  become  faithless  to 
the  spirit  which  animated  thee !  O  may  a  spark  of  thy  fiery 
soul  fall  into  ours  and  illuminate  it!  And  you,  unhappy 
Hellenists,  who  grew  impatient  with  time  and  were  thrust 
aside  by  time,  whose  good  intentions  were  turned  into 
curses,  to  yourselves  and  your  people,  you,  too,  we  under- 
stand and  over  your  tragic  fate,  too,  we  shed  tears  of  sympa- 
thy. We  and  generations  unborn  will  work  out  your  plans 
of  conciliation  and  fraternization,  but  in  calmness  and  wis- 
dom, taking  heed  not  to  awaken  love  violently  before  it  be 
willing.  In  due  time  God  will  hasten  His  salvation  and 
bring  on  the  great  day  of  universal  harmony  when  He 
will  blend  all  the  tribes  of  man  into  a  higher  unity. 


ERNEST  RENAN. 


TF  "there  are  sermons  in  stones,  books  in  running 
***  brooks,"  there  are  certainly  excellent  sermons  in  the 
lives  of  the  humblest  men.  How  much  more  information 
must  there  be  in  the  life  of  Renan,  who  for  fifty  years  and 
upwards  has  been  among  a  host  of  brilliant  authors  the 
most  brilliant  writer  of  France,  who,  during  half  a  cen- 
tury, has  largely  moulded  the  religious  ideas  and  moral 
tendencies  of  the  French  people,  and  has  exerted  a  consid- 
erable influence  on  the  thought  of  Europe,  and  more 
especially  affected  its  views  regarding  the  origin  and 
development  of  the  religion  and  ethics  of  Israel.  How 
great  soever  his  faults  as  a  thinker,  how  numerous  soever 
his  glittering  but  superficial  generalities,  how  grievous 
soever  his  shortcomings  as  an  historian,  how  perverted  and 
exaggerated  soever  his  religious  and  philosophical  ideas 
may  have  been,  he  is  nevertheless  in  his  weakness  and 
strength,  in  his  aspirations  and  his  skepticism,  in  his  ideal- 
ism and  his  pessimism,  a  representative  Frenchman,  the 
very  embodiment  of  the  national  spirit,  as  it  was  fashioned 
by  the  classic  age  and  literature  of  Louis  XIV.,  as  it  came 
forth  from  the  school  of  Voltaire,  Diderot,  and  the  other 
Encyclopedists,  and  as  it  was  shaped  with  the  shanks  of 
doom  by  the  great  revolution  and  later  political  and 
social  cataclysms. 

The  age  of  Louis  XIV.  and  its  galaxy  of  great  writ- 
ers and  artists  brought  to  a  head  what  the  native  instincts 
of  preceding  ages  had  been  tending  to,  it  made  the  French 
the  modern  classical  people  of  beautiful  forms  in  social  inter- 
course, in  art,  and  literature.  From  the  court  courtly  forms 
spread  to  the  upper  and  the  middle  classes,  and  from  them 


252 

they  descended  to  the  lower  strata  of  society.  French  man- 
ners are  most  elegant  and  winning.  From  the  academician  to 
the  artisan,  from  the  great  lady  to  the  wife  of  the  small  shop- 
keeper^here  is  a  natural  courtesy  and  urbanity  in  the  French 
which  forms  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  natural  rudeness 
and  brusqueness  observable  in  the  great  mass  of  the  other 
European  nations.  More  than  any  other  people,  the  French 
seek  to  cover  up  the  ugly  features  of  selfish  human  nature 
with  the  veil  of  exquisite  politeness,  and  try  to  make  the 
converse  of  man  with  man  a  thing  of  beauty  and  joy. 

Renan  was  the  typical  son  of  this  amiable  nation.  He 
was  perhaps  the  most  amiable  and  lovable  Frenchman  of  his 
time.  There  was  a  refinement  about  him,  an  indescribable 
charm  of  manner,  a  sweetness  of  temper,  a  joyous  kindli- 
ness of  nature,  that  made  everybody  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  know  him  love  him  tenderly,  enthusiastically. 
Even  those  who  most  bitterly  opposed  his  theological 
views  and  hated  his  writings  as  prolific  sources  of  spiritual 
evil,  cherished  for  him  personally  but  feelings  of  respect 
and  affection.  No  bitter  words  ever  escaped  his  lips  or 
flowed  from  his  pen  against  those  whose  fierce  opposition 
had  driven  him  from  his  professorial  chair  at  the  College  of 
France  and  who  continued  to  assail  his  works  with  unspar- 
ing invectives.  He  was  generous  to  friend  and  foe  alike. 
It  may  be  truly  said  of  him,  that  he  loved  his  enemies. 
He  bestowed  valuable  favors  on  them,  whenever  there  was 
an  opportunity,  and  aided  whatever  good  cause  they 
worked  for  with  his  immense  influence.  Struggling  tal- 
ents of  every  kind  received  encouragement,  liberal  help, 
and  advice  from  him,  and  whenever  his  own  means  did 
not  suffice,  a  note  of  recommendation  from  him  to  any  of 
his  millionaire  friends,  to  a  Rothschild  or  Baron  de  Hirsch, 
was  as  good  as  a  note  of  the  Bank  of  France.  Not  only  in 
France,  but  in  every  European  country  and  in  America  he 
left  behind  him  a  host  of  devoted  friends  and  admirers  among 
Catholics,  Protestants,  and  Israelites,  among  believers  and 


253 

unbelievers.  He  recognized  in  his  personal  relations 
no  difference  of  creed,  race,  or  nationality.  He  corre- 
sponded on  terms  of  intimacy  with  dignitaries  of  the 
Church,  with  leading  Lutherans,  and  with  Jewish  scholars, 
such  as  Geiger,  Levy,  and  many  others.  Though  the 
fratricidal  war  between  France  and  Germany  had  enkin- 
dled fierce  hatred  between  these  two  nations,  it  did  not 
alienate  Renan's  soul  from  his  German  associates,  nor  did 
it  blind  him  to  the  superiority  of  German  scholarship,  nor 
cause  him  to  think  less  highly  of  the  noble  qualities  of 
the  German  heart  and  mind.  France  may  justly  be  proud 
of  Renan,  and  as  long  as  she  can  produce  such  characters 
and  pure  lives  as  his,  her  moral  standing  among  the  civil- 
ized nations  will  be  firmly  secured. 

As  a  literary  artist,  Renan  ranks  among  the  foremost 
representatives  of  the  French  artistic  genius.  As  respects 
the  art  of  literary  composition,  the  French  have  no  rival 
among  the  modern  nations.  From  this  point  of  view  they 
are,  in  a  higher  sense  than  any  other  people,  the  heirs  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  The  Renaissance,  or  the  rebirth  of  the 
models  of  ancient  art  and  literature,  has  in  this  respect 
done  more  for  them  than  for  any  other  nation.  The 
French  language  is  itself  a  most  perfect  masterpiece, 
devised  by  no  individual  artist,  but  bodied  forth  by  the 
artistic  soul  of  the  nation.  It  is  a  marvelous  vehicle  of 
communication,  which  conveys  thought  with  astonishing 
precision.  It  is  rich,  copious,  yet  never  ambiguous;  it  has 
the  logical  directness,  lucidity,  and  syntactic  coherence  of 
the  Latin  together  with  the  grace  and  beauty  of  the  Greek 
language.  These  native  qualities  of  their  idiom  have, 
since  the  golden  age  of  Racine,  Moliere,  Bossuet,  Fe*nelon, 
and  many  other  stars  of  first  magnitude,  been  developed 
to  a  wonderful  degree  of  perfection.  The  French  style  is 
as  clear  and  transparent  as  the  water  of  the  most  limpid 
brook.  With  hardly  an  exception  French  authors  in  every 
province  of  literature  strive  above  all  other  things  to  write 


254 

with  elegance,  precision,  and  grace.  They  form  every 
sentence  with  the  utmost  care,  as  if  they  meant  it  to  be  in 
itself  a  model  "of  literary  art.  There  is  in  French  books 
and  essays  a  proportion  between  parts,  a  symmetry  of 
ideas,  an  airy  gracefulness,  a  vivacity  of  movement,  a 
spirited  sententiousness,  that  makes  them  the  model  and 
envy  of  all  nations.  The  French  mind  is  nothing  if  not 
logical;  it  is  passionately  fond  of  symmetry.  Hence  the 
French  excel  in  mathematics  and  astronomy.  A  French 
writer  will  take  up  an  idea,  which  he  holds  to  be  true,  and 
will  with  admirable  skill  develop  it  to  its  utmost  logical 
consequences,  oftentimes  without  regard  to  historical  or 
social  facts.  If  the  facts  of  history  and  life  do  not  agree 
with  his  idea,  which  ought  to  be  universally  true,  the 
worse  for  the  facts.  A  French  author  will  erect  a  grand, 
many-storied  edifice  out  of  the  materials  of  one  truth,  one 
idea.  There  will  be  many  large  windows  to  that  building, 
and  at  each  window  the  same  theory  will  stand  smiling, 
and  look  out  at  you  with  a  winning  grace.  The  more  is 
the  pity  if  the  realities  of  things  are  seen  standing  outside, 
declaring  aloud  that  there  is  no  room  for  them  in  that 
beautiful  building,  and  that,  if  once  admitted,  they  would 
burst  it  apart  and  bring  it  down  upon  the  author. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  are  very  numerous 
exceptions  to  this  rule.  But  the  general  characteristics  of 
the  French  mind  and  of  French  authors  most  fitly  apply 
to  the  mind  and  works  of  Renan,  and  give  a  fair  estimate 
of  his  merits  and  faults  as  a  writer.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  writers  of  modern  France.  Apart  from 
their  contents,  from  their  truth  or  falsity,  his  works  pos- 
sess excellencies  of  a  very  high  order.  They  are  master- 
pieces of  literary  art.  Long  after  progressive  biblical 
research  will  have  exploded,  long  after  a  deeper  and  truer 
philosphy  or  religion  will  have  refuted,  and  the  religious 
conscience  of  the  world  will  have  rejected,  his  theories  and 
ideas,  his  books  will  be  read  as  French  classics.  In  this 


255 

respect  Renan  is  one  of  the  incarnations  of  the  French 
artistic  genius.  But  also  his  faults  as  a  thinker  and  histo- 
rian, which  are  many  and  grave,  are  faults  of  the  French 
mind,  appearing  exaggerated  and  individualized  in  his 
writings.  He  has  the  French  passion  for  completeness  at 
any  price,  though  there  be  but  the  slenderest  fragments 
upon  which  to  build.  A  theory,  an  idea,  always  ingenious 
and  dazzling,  though  at  best  but  a  partial  truth,  will  take 
possession  of  him,  and  with  it  he  will  start  out  to  explain 
the  best  part  of  the  universe,  or  a  vast  section  of  history, 
and  will  resolutely  move  on  bursting  through  brazen  walls 
of  opposing  facts,  leveling  mountains  with  his  unterrified 
imagination  and  raising  valleys,  in  order  that  his  beautiful 
theory  may  spread  unchecked,  and  present  an  harmonious 
whole.  He  will  draw  a  picture  of  the  past,  so  perfect,  so 
vivid  and  attractive,  that  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been  taken 
from  life,  as  if  he  had  lived  in  closest  daily  contact  with, 
and  kept  a  diary  of,  the  persons  whose  characters  and  con- 
duct he  describes.  But  when  you  turn  to  the  given  mater- 
ial and  evidence  from  which  he  drew,  you  will  find  in 
most  cases  that  they  are  woefully  inadequate,  or  diametric- 
ally opposed  to  his  statements. 

As  you  wander  through  the  charming  chapters  of  his 
"  Life  of  Jesus  "  or  his  "  History  of  Israel,"  you  often  wonder 
where  he  got  hold  of  the  alleged  events  he  narrates,  and 
the  traits  of  character  he  depicts,  events  and  characteristics 
which  no  reader  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  ever 
dreamed  of,  which  no  investigator  has  been  able  to  dis- 
cover. One  often  asks  himself,  "How  did  Renan  come  to 
know  all  these  unknown  things  and  features?  Has  the 
genius  of  history  bequeathed  to  him  a  chest  full  of  original 
documents  and  dispatches?"  He  really  makes  no  secret  of 
his  plan  of  procedure.  In  the  preface  to  the  first  volume 
of  his  History  of  Israel,  he  says:  "We  must  not,  with  the 
modern  school  of  historians,  insist  on  being  guided  only  by 
the  evidence  at  hand.  In  that  case  the  history  of  Israel 


256 

up  to  the  time  of  David  would  be  a  blank,  and  could  not 
be  written  at  all.  The  question  is  not,  how  the  things 
really  came  to  pass ;  we  must  imagine  the  various  ways 
they  may  have  happened.  What  has  not  been  true  in  one 
case  has  been  true  in  another."  And  then  he  goes  boldly  on 
to  construct  a  history,  such  as  his  poetic  imagination  and  his 
French  love  of  logical  symmetry  require.  In  fact,  his  "  Life 
of  Jesus"  is  no  real  biography,  is  no  more  a  history  of  the 
founder  of  Christianity  than  Wallace's  "Ben  Hur."  His 
"  History  of  Israel,"  at  least  in  the  earlier  volumes,  is  really 
no  history.  These  works  are  delightful  historical  romances. 
As  such  they  are  as  excellent,  as  artistic,  as  Walter  Scott's 
novels,  with  the  difference  that  the  latter  mirror  the  Scot- 
tish past  more  truthfully  than  Renan's  so-called  histories 
reflect  the  Biblical  and  post-Biblical  past  of  Israel. 

Yet  it  can  not  be  denied,  that  there  are  in  these  works 
flashes  of  wonderful  insight  into  the  innermost  workings 
of  the  souls  of  the  prophets  and  apostles.  He  at  times 
looks  with  the  divining  eye  of  a  true  poet  into  the  most 
secret  laboratory  of  the  Israelitish  mind,  where  the  great 
religious  ideas  and  moral  ideals  were  formed  out  of  older 
amorphous  elements,  ideas  and  ideals  which  went  forth  to 
bless  the  families  of  the  earth.  Few  men  have  had  as  firm 
a  grasp  of  the  central  religious  and  moral  ideas  of  the 
faith  of  Israel,  or  Yahvism.  Few  men  have,  like  him  for 
fifty  years  and  upwards,  held  their  ear  to  the  heart  of 
Israel's  prophets  and  teachers,  and  heard  it  throb  with  a 
mighty  love  of  justice,  and  palpitate  with  a  fierce  hatred  of 
injustice.  Few  men  have  for  half  a  century  stood,  like 
him,  with  the  prophets  before  the  burning  bush  of  the 
world-mystery,  and  listened  intently  to  the  solemn  message, 
that  there  is  an  Eternal  Being,  Yahve,  the  supreme  Intelli- 
gence, who  is  the  Father  of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth,  and 
who  will  in  the  fulness  of  time  cause  right  and  love  to 
prevail.  He  heard  the  message,  but  he  lacked  the  faith  to 
receive,  and  to  believe  in  it.  He  did  not  believe  in  a 


257 

World-Soul,  whose  essence  is  love ;  he  did  not  believe  that 
the  heart  of  the  universe  is  justice,  nor  did  he  believe  that 
the  world  of  humanity  is  governed  by  the  powers  of  good- 
ness, that  justice  will  one  day  find  an  abiding  home  with 
man,  that  the  common  good  will  in  the  end  be  crowned 
with  victory.  He  was  a  pessimist  in  religion,  ethics,  and 
politics.  The  establishment  of  democracy  in  France  and 
its  conduct  frightened  him,  and  filled  him  with  gloomy 
forebodings  as  to  the  future  of  his  nation.  In  his  poem 
"Caliban"  he  describes  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  bestial 
elements  of  man  and  the  suppression  of  the  higher. 

In  this,  his  religious,  moral,  and  political  pessimism, 
he  is  again  a  representative  of  modern  France.  His  pes- 
simism is  said  to  have  infected  the  new  generation  of 
writers.  There  is  a  school  of  young  authors,  who  profess 
and  preach,  in  novels  and  more  serious  works,  the  sad  doc- 
trines of  Renan.  But  in  reality  he  was  not  the  father, 
but  the  child  of  French  pessimism,  he  was  in  this  respect, 
too,  but  the  son  of  his  time  and  people.  What  took  place 
in  the  life  of  the  individual  Frenchman,  Ernest  Renan, 
who,  having  been  brought  up  in  a  Catholic  seminary  in 
the  strictest  doctrines  of  the  church,  not  only  broke 
entirely  away  from  Catholicism,  not  only  renounced  Chris- 
tianity, but  also  gave  up,  though  with  a  bleeding  heart,  the 
very  essence  of  the  monotheistic  Israelitish  faith — this  same 
spiritual  tragedy  has  been  and  is  still  being  enacted  in  the 
life  of  his  great  mother,  the  French  nation,  a  tragedy  the 
more  awful,  because  it  is  national  and  because  in  this  case 
there  is  no  death  to  bring  it  to  a  conciliating  end.  To  the 
head  and  heart  of  France,  to  the  upper  classes  as  a  whole, 
always  reserving  many  thousands  of  exceptions,  to  those 
who  lead  and  think,  who  in  the  last  resort  determine  the 
great  movements  of  the  national  life,  religion  even  in  its 
broadest  and  most  liberal  sense,  even  the  faith  of  the 
prophets,  the  belief  in  a  supreme  Power  and  Wisdom,  the 
belief  in  an  overruling  Providence  shaping  the  destinies 


of  mankind  to  ever  higher  ends,  are  utterly  dead  and  past 
resurrection.  As  it  is  dead  with  the  upper  classes,  so  it  is 
with  the  laboring  masses.  What  is  left  to  fill  the  place  of 
lost  faith  are  grandiloquent  phrases,  high-sounding  senti- 
mentalities, which  are  often  used  to  cover  the  yawning 
abyss  of  spiritual  despair.  The  nation's  loss  of  faith  in 
an  Infinite  and  Absolute,  a  conscious  Will  making  for 
righteousness  and  goodness,  has  also  brought  with  it  the 
downfall  of  the  belief  in  a  future  redemption  of  mankind 
from  evil  and  sin,  in  the  final  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom of  righteousness  on  earth,  the  belief  which  is  the  very 
soul  of  morality,  that  goodness  is  bound  to  prevail  and 
wickedness  to  succumb  in  the  end.  The  French  mind, 
vigorous,  rich,  progressive  though  it  is,  for  the  present,  at 
least,  is  in  its  representative  classes  and  thinkers  thor- 
oughly pessimistic,  sad  and  hopeless,  believing  neither  in 
God,  nor  the  soul,  nor  in  the  victorious  power  of  right  and 
truth.  Hence  the  cynicism  and  painful  realism  that 
appears  in  the  works  of  even  the  best  authors;  hence  also 
the  unblushing  sensualism  and  mocking  selfishness  of  the 
laboring  classes,  from  the  taint  of  which  the  upper  classes 
are  by  no  means  free. 

The  pessimism  of  the  French  stands  in  glaring  con- 
trast to  the  optimism  of  the  English,  and  more  especially 
to  the  wonderful  hopefulness  of  the  American  mind.  The 
two  English-speaking  nations  have  not  lost  the  three  magic 
jewels  of  humanity,  faith  in  a  heart  of  goodness  throbbing 
at  the  center  of  existence,  faith  in  the  soul  of  man  and  its 
kinship  to  the  highest,  faith  in  the  coming  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  though  it  tarry  long  to  appear.  This  gives 
buoyancy,  joyousness,  moral  vigor  to  their  national  charac- 
ter. They  know  that  their  destinies  are  bound  up  with 
the  awful  and  holy  mystery  of  infinite  existence,  they  are 
convinced  that  their  future  is  in  the  keeping  of  a  Power 
whose  will  can  not  be  thwarted  nor  turned  away  from  its 
purpose.  The  English  people  and  the  Americans  owe  the 


259 

preservation  of  the  three  jewels  of  faith,  to  which  is  due 
the  wholesomeness  and  hopefulness  of  their  rnind,  to  the 
fact  that  religious  and  political  liberty  stood  guard  over 
their  growing  life.  Where  freedom  holds  her  gentle  sway, 
knowledge  and  faith  do  not  wage  a  deadly  conflict  with 
each  other.  These  two  daughters  of  heaven  grow  and 
wax  mighty  together,  and  move  before  man  to  lead  him  to 
ever  higher  destinies.  Knowledge  drives  away  the  dark- 
ness of  ignorance,  slays  the  dragons  of  superstition,  buries 
dead  traditions  and  withers  soul-enslaving  forms.  She 
gives  him  power  and  victory  over  evil,  and  multiplies  his 
possessions  an  hundred  and  thousand  fold.  She  chains 
nature's  forces  to  the  chariot  of  his  mind  and  gives  him 
wings  to  fly  over  space  and  time.  Faith  teaches  men  purity 
of  feeling,  sincerity  of  thought,  and  nobility  of  action. 
She  bridges  over  the  gulf  which  separates  the  individual 
from  his  kind,  and  causes  his  interests  and  love  to  grow 
incorporate  with  the  common  good  of  all.  Faith  holds  up 
the  mirror  to  man,  in  which  he  may  see  all  the  wonders 
and  glories  that  are  to  be.  She  marches  before  him  with 
the  torch  of  hope.  She  points  out  to  him  the  city  of  God, 
seated  on  the  hill.  She  lifts  him  up  when  he  has  fallen, 
and  gives  him  new  strength  when  his  spirit  grows  faint. 
She  plants  the  tree  of  life  on  the  grave.  The  French  peo- 
ple lost  the  jewels  of  faith  because  political  despotism  and 
religious  despotism  had  for  centuries  put  their  conscience 
and  mind  in  chains,  and  trampled  the  rights  of  the  citizen 
underfoot.  And  when  at  last  conscience  and  mind  burst 
their  fetters,  and  the  rights  of  man  rose  from  the  dust,  they 
rushed  with  demon-fury  against  the  Church  and  the  State. 
The  French  revolution  was  the  offspring  of  French  despot- 
ism, the  terror  had  its  birth  in  the  bastile,  the  axe  which 
cut  off  the  head  of  Louis  XVI.  and  Mary  Antoinette,  was 
forged  by  the  hands  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  The 
night  of  St.  Bartholomew  gave  birth  to  the  iconoclastic 
spirit  of  Voltaire,  the  :dragonades  were  the  mothers  of  the 


260 

Encyclopedists.  As  soon  as  this  wrathful  spirit  of  denial 
was  born,  it  sent  forth  such  peals  of  sardonic  laughter, 
that  it  made  the  saints  tremble  in  their  seats,  caused  the 
mitres  of  bishops  and  cardinals  to  appear  as  fools'  caps,  it 
turned  the  holiest  mysteries  of  religion  into  mummeries, 
and  changed,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  the  profoundest 
dogmas  into  hollow  delusions.  The  corrosive  poison  of 
its  fearful  satires  dissolved  the  very  substance  of  faith  in 
the  upper  and  in  the  lower,  largely  also  in  the  middle, 
classes.  The  doomsday  of  the  revolution  merely  consumed 
the  body  of  a  dynasty  already  dead,  and  abolished  a  relig- 
ion which  was  already  extinct.  Though  it  has  been  offi- 
cially restored,  it  has  not  been  resurrected  in  the  soul  of 
the  nation. 

The  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  their  children 
and  children's  children,  not  only  in  the  domain  of  physical 
life  but  also  in  the  domain  of  the  spiritual  life.  Renan  was 
one  such  child  of  time,  who  suffered  in  his  heart  and  mind 
for  the  iniquities  of  his  people's  past.  For  fifty  years  and 
longer  his  soul  stood  disconsolate  at  the  gates  of  Faith's 
paradise.  He  heard,  as  few  men  of  his  generation  did,  the 
sweet  psalms  of  holy  singers  with  startling  distinctness,  he 
saw  the  glorious  visions  of  the  world's  seers  with  a  clearer 
eye  than  many  a  professed  believer  in  literal  inspiration,  he 
felt  the  burden  of  the  prophets'  divine  tidings  more  keenly 
than  many  a  teacher  of  orthodox  religion.  But  he  could 
not  enter  the  paradise  of  Faith.  For  between  him  and  its 
walls  flowed  a  river  of  blood,  the  blood  of  those  slain  by 
fanaticism.  In  it  he  saw  swimming  the  myriad  corpses  of 
those  murdered  by  cruel  statecraft  and  priestly  fury.  Over 
its  red  waves  he  heard  the  loud  wail  of  countless  souls 
tormented,  while  in  the  flesh,  beyond  human  endurance. 
And  louder  than  the  songs  of  seers  and  seraphs  resounded 
in  his  heart  the  scornful  laughter  of  Voltaire  and  the  other 
voices  of  revengeful  and  wrathful  denial ! 


ALFRED  TENNYSON. 


A  STRONG,  melodious,  and  holy  voice  of  nature  and 
-*-*-  humanity  has  been  hushed  a  few  days  ago.  Lord 
Alfred  Tennyson,  lord  of  song  and  wisdom,  has  gone  silent. 
He  will  add  no  more  psalms  of  life  to  the  world's  psalm- 
ody, he  will  enrich  with  no  more  gems  of  thought  man- 
kind's store  of  higher  knowledge.  For  sixty  years  and 
upwards,  since  he  was  a  mere  youth,  he  has  stood  on  the 
watch-tower  of  time,  and  whatsoever  things  beautiful  his 
eye  beheld,  and  whatsoever  things  true  his  mind  discerned, 
and  whatsoever  things  good  his  heart  perceived,  he  uttered 
forth  in  undying  rhythmic  measures.  Two  generations 
listened  to  his  song  and  rejoiced  in  their  hearts,  and  two 
great  English-speaking  nations  received  his  message,  and 
their  lives  became  purer  and  wiser  thereby.  Tennyson 
was  one  of  the  world's  genuine  men,  an  original  intel- 
ligence. Most  men  pass  through  life  as  mere  shadows, 
flitting  along  paths  trodden  before  them  by  real  men. 
They  are  hollow  forms,  which  simulate  the  features  and 
actions  of  genuine  men.  Their  thoughts  are  echoes  of 
other  men's  thoughts,  their  faith  is  not  soul-born,  but 
something  external,  learned  of  men ;  their  very  feelings  are 
imitated,  copied.  Tennyson  was  no  mere  shadow,  no 
empty  form.  He  was  a  powerful  human  reality,  that 
steadily  grew  and  expanded  from  early  youth  to  a  high  old 
age,  bearing  the  golden  flowers  of  beauty,  ripening  the 
perfect  fruits  of  wisdom.  He  forced  his  way  through  the 
painted  copies  of  things,  through  the  spectres  of  words 
and  traditions,  to  the  breathing  life  of  nature  and  the  throb- 
bing heart  of  man.  He  stood  face  to  face  with  nature  and 


262 

humanity,  and  gazed  awe-struck  upon  the  countenance  of 
the  world's  history. 

"He  saw  through  life  and  death,  through  good  and  ill, 

He  saw  through  his  own  soul, 
The  marvel  of  his  everlasting  will, 

An  open  scroll 

Before  him  lay  ;  with  echoing  feet  he  threaded  the  secretest 
walks  of  fame." 

Like  all  great  poets,  like  Wordsworth  and  Browning, 
like  Schiller  and  Goethe,  Shakespeare  and  Dante  and  the 
poet  of  Job,  Tennyson  was  a  deep  thinker,  a  profound 
philosopher,  and,  like  a  true  poet,  it  was  not  with  the  dis- 
secting knife  of  the  logician,  not  with  the  scales,  measures, 
and  weights  of  the  scientist,  that  he  approached  the  great 
problems  of  existence,  but  with  the  riving  power  of  poetic 
intuition.  The  logician  and  the  scientist  forever  remain 
on  the  outside  of  things,  but  the  poetic  genius  penetrates 
to  their  innermost  chambers,  by  the  magic  of  his  universal 
love  for  all  life.  A  mind  of  such  penetrating,  original 
insight  was  that  of  Alfred  Tennyson.  He  was  no  warbler 
of  idle  songs,  no  wild  poet  who  "worked  without  a  pur- 
pose or  a  conscience."  The  great  problems  of  existence 
pressed  in  upon  his  mind,  demanding  a  fresh  solution. 
His  age,  which  is  also  our  age,  the  age  of  great  political 
and  social  revolution,  the  age  of  tremendous  upheavals  of 
thought,  the  age  whose  fire  has  melted  old  institutions, 
theories,  creeds,  traditions,  like  snow,  required  new  answers 
to  the  spirit's  everlasting  questions,  and  Tennyson  returned 
answers  from  the  heart  of  his  own  experience.  The  spirit 
of  the  times  formed  for  itself  in  Tennyson  an  inspired 
interpreter,  to  spell  out  its  hidden  meaning,  to  voice  its 
desires,  and  to  lend  the  beauty  and  sanctity  of  song  to  its 
ideas.  In  the  gloomy  night  of  his  own  misery,  while  his 
soul  was  moaning  and  weeping  over  the  death  of  his  dear- 
est friend,  Arthur  Hallam,  who  was  dearer  to  him  than  his 
own  brothers,  whom  he  revered  as  the  type  of  perfect 


263 

manhood,  whom  he  loved  as  the  embodiment  of  what  is 
divine  and  beautiful  in  man,  in  that  night  he  wrestled  with 
the  demon  of  ghastliest  doubts,  that  in  his  age  and  our  age 
threatens  to  blight  and  blast  the  breathing  spring  of  human 
hope  and  faith.  In  that  night  of  woe,  fear,  and  doubt,  he 
struggled  for  us  all  to  deliver  us  from  the  horrors  of  athe- 
ism, to  redeem  us  from  the  terrors  of  the  soul's  annihila- 
tion, to  free  us  from  the  furies  of  spiritual  despair.  In  his 
own  soul,  Tennyson  battled  for  the  soul  of  human  kind,  to 
save  it  from  self-slaughter.  Every  cry  of  anguish  he  uttered 
during  that  struggle  became  a  melodious  lament  of  all 
souls  smitten  with  grief,  the  red  blood  which  flowed  from 
his  wounded  heart  was  turned  into  unfading  flowers  of 
faith. 

Tennyson  descended  to  the  lowermost  circle  of  the 
spirit's  infernal  regions,  having  cruel  sorrow  for  his  guide. 
There  he  saw  the  gigantic  shades  of  dead  worlds,  the  spec- 
tral corpses  of  extinct  suns;  there  lay  shriveled  up  the 
once  blooming  earth,  bloodless,  motionless,  a  monstrous 
mummy.  No  love  was  throbbing  at  the  center  of  exist- 
ence, no  world-soul  was  bodying  forth  living  thoughts  in 
purposeful  creation.  He  seemed  to  see  the  spirit  of  man 
leaving  the  body  as  a  mere  breath,  and  dissipate  itself  and 
vanish  into  air.  And  this  universal  death  bore  the  pale 
features  of  his  dead  friend.  Cruel  sorrow  whispered: 

"The  stars  blindly  run  ; 

A  web  is  woven  across  the  sky, 

From  out  the  waste  places  comes  a  cry, 
And  murmurs  from  the  dying  sun  ; 
And  all  the  phantom,  Nature,  stands, 

With  all  the  music  in  her  tone, 

A  hollow  echo  of  my  own — 
A  hollow  form  with  empty  hands." 

And  from  the  vaults  of  death  a  voice  murmured  : 

"  The  cheeks  drop  in,  the  body  bows  ; 
«  Man  dies ;  nor  is  there  hope  in  dust." 


264 

"All,  then,"  his  soul  moaned,  "  heaven  and  earth,  is  dark- 
ness at  the  core.  All,  nature  and  man,  is  but  dust  and 
ashes." 

But  his  love,  that  was  stronger  than  death;  his  love  for 
his  lost  friend,  whom  of  all  creatures  he  deemed  the  fair- 
est, whom  he  revered  as  the  flower  of  man,  did  not  suffer 
him  forever  to  remain  a  bondsman  to  the  dark,  did  not 
allow  him  long  to  be  shut  up  with  sorrow  and  despair  and 
unbelief.  He  whom  he  held  to  be  half-divine,  that  glori- 
ous life,  the  noble  will,  strong  and  pure,  could  not  become 
earth's  rubbish  and  slime.  The  still  voice  of  love  within 
him  spoke:  "The  high  intelligence,  the  lordliest  of  all 
powers,  the  reason  ruling  over  all  and  reigning  supreme 
in  head  and  breast,  can  not  be  blown  out  like  a  light,  can 
not  vanish  like  a  mist.  Mind  is  the  lord  of  all;  the  mind 
of  man  is  a  beam  of  the  supreme  intelligence."  Then  he 
gathered  strength  and  fought  his  doubts. 

Then  new-born  faith,  a  stronger  faith  of  his  own,  born 
in  darkness  and  in  clouds,  leapt  full-armed  from  his  soul, 
faced  ^the  spectres  of  his  mind  and  laid  them.  Then  he 
threw  himself  with  his  weight  of  cares  on  "  the  great  world's 
altar-stairs,  that  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God." 
And  on  these  stairs  he  ascended  to  the  sunlit  heights, 
where  Hope  sits  rejoicing  at  the  foot  of  God's  throne. 
And  with  him  he  brought  his  own  strong  faith,  brought  it 
to  the  children  of  his  time,  who  dread  the  countenance  of 
science  and  tremble  at  her  words,  because  she,  the  all- 
knowing,  knows  naught  of  God,  of  free  will,  of  the  soul's 
immortality.  With  prophetic  fervor  he  sang  to  the  sons 
of  his  time:  "  Knowledge  is  of  things  we  see;  God's  immor- 
tal L,ove,  whose  face  we  can  not  see,  by  faith  and  faith 
alone  we  embrace,  believing  where  we  can  not  prove.  We 
have  but  faith,  we  can  not  know."  Not  that  he  did  not 
love  knowledge,  not  that  he  'railed  against  her  beauty,'  not 
that  he  wished  to  'fix  her  pillars,'  to  set  bars  to  her  progress. 
Knowledge,  he  believed,  came  from  God,  a  beam  in  our 


265 

darkness.  "Let  her  grow  from  more  to  more,"  said  he,  "  let 
her  work  prevail,  may  she  mix  with  men  and  prosper." 
But  there  should  be  more  of  reverence  in  her.  'Let  mind 
and  heart,  according  well,  once  more  make  one  music  as  be- 
fore.' On  the  forehead  of  science  sits  a  consuming  fire.  She 
submits  all  things  to  desire,  to  natural  impulses,  to  instinct- 
ive forces.  She  knows  only  what  is,  she  deals  with  things  as 
they  are.  She  knows  no  over-ruling  moral  law,  no  sover- 
eign "ought."  Can  science  fight  the  fear  of  death?  Cut 
from  love  and  faith,  she  is  some  wild  Pallas,  sprung  from  the 
brain  of  demons.  Fiery  hot,  she  will  burst  all  moral  bar- 
riers in  her  onward  race.  "  Let  her  know  her  place ;  she  is 
the  second,  not  the  first."  Let  wisdom  guide  her  footsteps. 
"For  she  is  earthly  of  the  mind,  But  Wisdom  heavenly  of 
the  soul." 

The  continental  masters  of  science  did  not  heed  the 
warning  voice  of  our  seer.  Their  theories,  true  within 
their  own  domain,  set  their  faces  boldly  forward,  and  leapt 
into  the  spiritual  domain,  where  they  wrought  sad  havoc 
among  the  European  nations.  Their  teachings,  misunder- 
stood, misapplied,  have  wellnigh  consumed  faith  with 
their  fire,  and  in  her  stead  have  arisen  soul-killing  athe- 
ism, the  despair  of  pessimism,  all-degrading  sensualism, 
and  the  fanaticism  of  race  hatred.  But  the  English  and 
American  nations,  the  spiritual  mothers  of  the  poet,  were 
swayed  by  his  prophetic  counsel,  and  with  them  faith  and 
knowledge  dwell  together  in  unity,  making  one  music  as 
before,  but  vaster. 

Lord  Tennyson  was  abreast  with  the  knowledge  of  his 
times,  not  as  a  trained  scientist,  but  as  a  man  of  highest 
culture,  who  watches  with  keenest  interest  the  intellectual 
movements  of  the  time,  and  whose  mind  moves  and  grows 
along  with  them.  The  great  intellectual  revolution  of  this 
century  that  goes  by  the  name  of  Evolution,  the  far-reach- 
ing revolution  set  in  motion  by  the  genius  of  Darwin,  his 
countryman,  who  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  he,  in 


266 

1809,  was  welcomed  by  him  as  a  new  ray  of  light,  as  a 
beam  from  God.  But  as  the  new  theory  of  the  flowering 
and  growing  of  life  passed  through  his  mind,  it  was  beau- 
tified by  the  rays  of  his  poetic  genius:  the  moral  ideas 
blossomed  forth  from  the  germs  of  development,  and  the 
ideals  of  humanity  appeared  as  perfect  fruits  on  the  top- 
most branch  of  the  world-tree.  The  poem,  "  Contemplate 
all  this  Work,"  is  a  noble  hymn,  in  which  the  greatest 
English  poet  of  this  century  gave  the  approval  and  sanc- 
tion of  the  world's  conscience  and  faith  to  the  new  theory 
of  life,  taught  by  the  greatest  English  scientist  of  the  cen- 
tury. "Arise  and  fly  the  reeling  faun,  the  sensual  feast; 
Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast,  And  let  the  ape  and 
tiger  die."  These  are  the  concluding  words  of  the  gospel 
of  growing  humanity,  proclaimed  by  the  poet  from  the 
heights  of  modern  knowledge. 

Lord  Tennyson  was  not  only  a  great  poet  and  a  great 
thinker  ;  he  was  also  a  great,  good  man.  He  scorned  scorn, 
he  hated  hate,  loved  love.  The  well-spring  of  his  song 
was  love  of  the  best,  hatred  of  sin,  love  of  right,  hate  of 
wrong.  The  charm  of  his  poetry  lies  mainly  in  his  pro- 
found sympathy  with  man,  his  woes  and  sorrows,  his  rise 
and  fall,  his  aspirations  and  struggles.  With  his  ringing 
song  he  strove  to  "ring  out  the  false  and  ring  in  the  true." 
While  'he  moved  his  course,  crowned  with  attributes  of 
woelike  glories,'  he  longed  to  ring  out,  by  teaching  men 
faith  and  wisdom,  "the  grief  that  saps  the  mind."  He 
grieved  over  the  feud  of  the  rich  and  poor,  and  regarded  it 
as  a  poet's  mission  to  "ring  in  redress  to  all  mankind." 
Whatever  laws,  institutions,  and  old  forms  of  political  life 
he  saw  to  be  decaying,  slowly  dying,  he  wished  to  be 
speedily  rung  out  of  existence,  and  be  replaced  by  "nobler 
modes  of  life,  with  sweeter  manners  and  purer  laws." 

More  than  all  the  sermons  preached  in  his  lifetime  have 
Tennyson's  inspired  verses,  his  flame-winged  rhymes,  done 
to  ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease;  to  ring  out  the  want, 


267 

the  care,' the  sin,  to  ring  out  in  England  and  America  'the 
narrowing  lust  of  gold,  the  faithless  coldness  of  the  times 
to  ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood,  the  civil  slander 
and  the  civic  spite,  and  to  ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and 
right,  the  common  love  of  good.'  And  in  coming  ages, 
when  the  thousand  wars  of  old  shall  have  been  rung  out 
by  the  combined  influences  of  knowledge  and  faith,  by  the 
efforts  of  the  wise  statesmen,  the  heroes,  martyrs,  and  seers 
of  all  times,  then  will  Tennyson's  name  be  known  and 
revered  among  those  whose  life  and  work  helped  to  ring  in 
"the  thousand  years  of  peace."  His  heart  did  not  misgive 
him  as  to  the  final  triumph  of  right  and  truth.  Even 
while  'the  red  fool-fury  of  the  Seine  piled  again  her  barri- 
cades with  dead,'  his  soul  knew  that  all  was  well ;  even 
while  in  the  roaring  storm,  'faith  and  form  seemed  sun- 
der'd  in  the  night  of  fear,'  he  heard  a  deeper  voice  across 
the  storm  proclaiming,  "Social  truth  shall  spread,  and 
justice." 

What  a  rich  life  was  his,  how  full  of  ceaseless  effort, 
how  fruitful  in  accomplishing,  how  nobly  he  worked  his 
life-work  from  early  youth  to  the  last  days  of  his  high  old 
age !  A  spiritual  Ulysses,  he  could  not  rest  from  traveling 
onward  on  wisdom's  road.  How  dull  it  seemed  to  him 
ever  to  pause,  though  he  had  seen  much  and  known  much, 
and  become  a  part  of  all  he  met.  Though  his  had  become 
a  name  known  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  he  would 
make  no  end  of  work,  would  not  let  his  mind  rust  unbur- 
nished.  He  shone  in  use  even  in  the  last  days  of  his  high 
old  age.  He  saved  every  hour  of  his  life  from  the  eternal 
silence,  he  was  ever  a  bringer  of  new  things,  of  immortal 
works.  With  an  ever  hungry  heart  he  roamed  the  plains 
of  knowledge,  his  spirit  longed  in  desire  to  follow  knowl- 
edge, like  a  sinking  star,  beyond  the  utmost  bounds  of 
human  thought.  Though  his  body  had  been  made  weak 
by  time  and  fate,  he  was  to  the  last  strong  in  will,  to  strive, 
to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield.  Alas,  the  King  of  Song 


268 

has  passed  away;  the  shining  knight  of  love  and  faith,  of 
truth  and  human  brotherhood,  has  been  wafted  from  the 
shores  of  mortality!  And  we,  still  standing  on  the  banks 
of  time,  have  seen  how  a  dusky  bark  hove  in  sight,  all  the 
decks  dense  with  stately  forms,  the  figures  of  those  to 
whom  his  genius  gave  immortality.  King  Arthur  was 
there,  and  the  three  Queens  with  crowns  of  gold,  and  all 
the  famous  Knights  of  the  Round  Table.  Ulysses  also  was 
seen  and  his  companions;  brave-hearted  Enoch  Arden  was 
in  the  funeral  barge;  and  chaste  Godiva,  Isabel,  Mariana, 
Maud  and  Lady  Clare,  Dora  and  the  Gardener's  Daughter, 
Queen  Mary,  Harold,  and  the  Foresters.  But  one  there 
rose,  the  tallest  of  them  all  and  the  fairest,  Arthur  Hallam, 
who  laid  the  poet's  head  on  his  lap  and  called  him  by  his 
name,  complaining  loud.  And  from  them  all  and  from  us 
all,  that  loved  and  revered  him  as  our  guide,  from  millions 
of  souls  whose  light  he  had  been  in  darkness,  there  rose 

"A  cry  that  shivered  to  the  twinkling  stars, 
And,  as  it  were  one  voice,  an  agony 
Of  lamentation,  like  a  wind  that  shrills 
All  night  in  a  waste  land,  where  no  one  comes, 
Or  has  come,  since  the  making  of  the  world." 


ALEXANDER  III. 


'"T^HE  Czar  Alexander  III.  is  dead.  He  passed  away 
after  a  most  painful  illness  before  completing  his 
fiftieth  year.  The  autocratic  ruler  and  master  of  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  million  human  beings  has  yielded  to 
an  Autocrat  mightier  than  he.  He  whose  word  could 
make  a  prince  of  the  veriest  beggar  and  turn  princes 
into  vagabonds,  is  now  poorer  and  weaker  than  the  most 
wretched  exile  working  in  chains  in  a  Siberian  mine.  He 
whose  single  will  commanded  the  bodies  and  souls  of  vast 
multitudes,  has  not  will-power  enough  left  to  stir  his  little 
finger.  The  man  whose  decree  drove  millions  of  his  sub- 
jects from  their  homes,  has  been  compelled  by  an  omnipo- 
tent Will  to  leave  his  own  palatial  home  and  take  up  his 
abode  in  a  subterranean  chamber.  He  whose  empire 
stretched  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Black  Sea  and 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Baltic,  now  is  content  to  lie  a  still 
and  harmless  man  within  the  narrow  confines  of  a  coffin — 
a  beautiful  and  precious  coffin,  no  doubt — still  a  coffin. 
Such  is  the  impotence  and  vanity  of  all  earthly  power  and 
pomp.  What  a  grim  satirist  Death  is !  What  cruel  sport 
he  makes  of  the  mightiest  kings !  How  he  puts  his  grinning 
mask  upon  the  face  of  majesty!  How,  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  he  changes  their  crowns  and  sceptres  into  a 
ghastly  mockery  and  makes  the  vain  shows  of  royalty  a 
derision!  There  is  something  at  once  tragical  and  farcical 
in  this  sudden  collapse  into  nothingness,  which  God's 
alleged  vicegerents  suffer  on  being  touched  by  the  cold 
hand  of  Death.  The  man  to  whom  for  thirteen  years  the 
twelfth  part  of  the  human  race  looked  up  with  brutish 
awe  and  slavish  fear,  whom  they  dreaded  more  and  obeyed 


270 

more  readily  than  God  in  heaven,  will  furnish  a  banquet 
to  the  worms  like  the  corpse  of  any  pauper. 

Vanity  of  vanities,  all  earthly  glory  and  authority  are 
vanity!  But  no,  all  is  not  vanity.  Wise  kings,  righteous 
rulers,  who  strove  to  establish  the  reign  of  universal  justice 
and  equity  in  the  land  and  wielded  the  scepter  of  mercy 
and  humanity,  are  more  glorious  in  death  than  in  life. 
They  live  transfigured  in  the  grateful  memory  of  their 
people,  and  are  venerated  by  the  nations  of  the  earth  as 
heroes,  guides,  and  benefactors  of  the  race. 

No  unprejudiced  observer  of  these  times,  who  goes  by 
facts  and  not  by  fictions,  will  assign  to  Czar  Alexander  III. 
a  place  among  the  wise  and  beneficent  rulers  known  to 
history.  Though  we  put  the  most  charitable  construction 
on  his  intentions  and  acts,  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion 
that  his  reign  was  most  calamitous  to  the  Russian  people 
and  a  great  misfortune  to  the  best  interests  of  civilization. 
The  saddest  feature  of  all  is  that  the  dead  Czar,  who 
caused  more  human  misery  and  degradation  than  Caligula, 
Nero,  and  Domitian  combined,  was  by  no  means  a  bad 
man  at  heart.  Had  it  been  his  good  fortune  to  be  a  mere 
private  citizen,  he  would  have  been  an  estimable,  though 
commonplace,  man.  He  possessed  in  a  marked  degree 
what  are  called  the  domestic  virtues.  He  was  a  most  faith- 
ful and  loving  husband  in  the  midst  of  a  notoriously 
shameless  society,  compared  with  which  even  French 
society  under  the  Regency,  with  all  its  cynicism  and  blots 
and  foulness,  possessed  certain  redeeming  traits.  His  love 
for  his  wife  was  almost  morbid  in  its  intensity.  He  was  a 
most  devoted  father.  Grief  over  the  fatal  illness  of  one  of 
his  sons  hastened  his  own  end.  He  found  his  greatest 
enjoyment  in  being  with  his  wife  and  children.  He  was  a 
very  industrious  and  plodding  man.  Save  for  brief  periods 
of  holiday-making  with  his  family,  he  used  to  work  till 
two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  examining  records, 
reading  suggestions,  and  signing  papers.  He  was  a  giant 


271 

in  health  and  strength.  Had  he  been  born  to  one  of  the 
minor  thrones  of  Europe,  he  would  most  probably  have 
proved  a  respectable  figure-head.  The  tragedy  of  his  life, 
with  all  its  horrors  and  dismal  failures,  sprang  from  the 
fact  that  he,  a  man  of  the  very  slenderest  talents,  very 
imperfectly  educated,  a  slow,  narrow,  prejudiced,  and  stub- 
born man,  was  fated  to  guide  the  destinies  of  the  Russian 
empire  at  the  very  time  when  it  would  have  required  the 
genius  of  a  Caesar  or  a  Napoleon  to  cope  with  the  gigantic 
evils  and  innumerable  difficulties  bequeathed  by  the  sin- 
laden  past.  Nature  had  fitted  Alexander  to  occupy  in 
some  industrial  establishment  a  subordinate  position 
requiring  great  physical  power  and  habits  of  industry. 
The  cruel  irony  of  fate  called  this  poor  Philistine  of 
stunted  intelligence,  of  dimmest  vision,  hard-headed  and 
bigoted,  to  fill  the  imperial  office  which  his  highly 
endowed,  broad-minded,  noble,  and  enthusiastic  father 
after  twenty  years  of  heroic  struggle  found  to  be  beyond 
his  powers. 

His  statesmanlike  and  high-aspiring  father  undertook 
the  tremendous  task  of  governing  Russia  wisely  and  justly, 
of  making  her  a  truly  civilized  country,  of  saving  the 
peasantry  and  the  Jews  from  the  misery  of  ages,  and  of 
delivering  the  people  from  the  curse  of  inconceivable 
official  corruption  pervading  and  paralyzing  all  depart- 
ments. He  succeeded  in  the  herculean  effort  to  liberate 
between  fifty  and  sixty  million  peasants  from  the  yoke  and 
degradation  of  serfdom,  or  slavery.  He  ordered  schools  to 
be  established  everywhere,  in  order  to  bring  to  the  brutal- 
ized and  incredibly  ignorant  peasants  some  light  of  educa- 
tion. He  introduced  the  jury  system  not  only  for  civil 
suits,  but  also  for  criminal  and  political  offenses.  He 
made  some  inroads  upon  the  crushing  despotic  system  of 
absolute  centralization.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  Russia,  he  tried  to  give  the  people  some  measure  of  local 
self-government  by  creating  the  institution  of  the  Zemst- 


272 

vos,  or  local  administrative  boards,  elected  by  the  provin- 
cial nobility  and  the  wealthier  citizens.  He,  moreover, 
encouraged  the  Zemstvos  to  establish  common  schools  of 
various  orders,  not  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  igno- 
rant and  drunken  clergy.  The  censorship  of  the  press 
was  relaxed,  and  public  opinion  was  allowed  to  develop 
and  express  itself  with  a  great  deal  of  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence. He  gave  relief  to  the  hitherto  cruelly  oppressed 
sects  of  Russian  dissenters,  who,  beside  the  Protestants, 
are  the  only  real  Christians  in  the  empire.  He  allowed 
them  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
conscience,  although  he  did  not  dare  to  remove  all  legal 
restrictions.  He  alleviated  the  miserable  lot  of  the  Rus- 
sian soldier,  greatly  reducing  the  years  of  service,  and  in 
every  way  trying  to  stay  the  thieving  and  rapacious  hands 
of  the  officers  who  were  preying  upon  him.  He  not  only 
abolished  the  fearful  national  instrument  of  torture,  the 
knout — a  whip  provided  with  several  thongs  having  a 
leaden  ball  at  the  end — but  he  also  forbade  all  corporeal 
punishment. 

Of  all  the  wretched  people  of  Russia,  the  Jews  profited 
most  by  the  liberal  policy  of  the  good  Emperor.  They 
had  till  then  been  cooped  up  within  the  so-called  Pale,  a 
circumscribed  territory  consisting  of  seventeen  provinces, 
which  formerly  constituted  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland. 
The  rest  of  Holy  Russia  was  hermetically  closed  to  "the 
scurvy  Jews,"  as  they  were  officially  styled  by  Catherine 
II.  The  generous  and  far-sighted  Czar  threw  open  the 
gates  of  all  Russia  to  certain  classes  of  Jews,  viz.:  to 
skilled  artisans,  graduates  of  high  schools  and  universities, 
and  the  merchants  of  the  first  guild.  The  latter  are  mer- 
chants who  for  five  consecutive  years  had  been  paying  an 
annual  tax  of  six  hundred  dollars  inside  the  Pale,  which 
amount  they  have  to  pay  for  two  years  longer  after  settling 
in  the  interior.  About  one  million  Jews,  mostly  artisans, 
flowed  over  into  the  provinces  of  Russia  proper.  This  out- 
flow gave  some  relief  to  the  fearfully  over-crowded  Jewish 


273 

population  in  the  Pale,  and  enabled  the  remaining  five  mil- 
lions to  earn  a  little  more  bread.  Free  access  was  given 
the  Jews  to  all  educational  institutions.  There  was  a  won- 
derful intellectual,  commercial,  and  patriotic  revival  among 
the  Jews  of  Russia,  which  redounded  to  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  people.  The  Jewish  youths  and  maidens  pressed 
forward  to  the  high  schools  and  universities,  to  drink  with 
avidity  the  long-withheld  waters  of  knowledge.  They  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  native  ability  and  persevering 
industry,  incited  as  they  were  to  utmost  exertion  by  the 
ambition  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  higher  education.  A 
number  of  men  of  world-wide  fame  came  from  their  midst. 
Among  others  I  will  but  mention  Mendelieeff,  the  greatest 
living  chemist,  and  Antokolsky,  one  of  the  greatest  sculp- 
tors of  the  age.  During  the  beneficent  reign  of  Alexander 
II.,  Jewish  intelligence  and  enterprise  exerted  a  most  pow- 
erful stimulating  influence  on  the  industries  and  the  trade 
of  Russia.  During  those  years  of  relative  enfranchisement 
the  Jews  became  enthusiastic  patriots.  They  learned  to 
feel  themselves  as  children  of  their  Russian  fatherland. 
The  cruel  lines  of  race  and  creed  demarcation  which  had 
been  so  deeply  drawn  in  previous  reigns,  became  less  prom- 
inent in  men's  minds — in  places  faded  away  altogether. 
The  Jews  of  Russia  call  those  comparatively  happy  years 
"the  golden  age." 

Alexander  II.  tried,  also,  to  reconcile  his  Polish  sub- 
jects. He  made  to  them  large  and  valuable  concessions. 
He  granted  them  a  certain  measure  of  local  self-govern- 
ment, and  appointed  a  Polish  statesman,  his  personal 
friend,  Count  Wielopolsky,  as  governor-general  of  Poland. 
He  cherished  the  plan  of  restoring  to  Poland  a  sort  of 
autonomy,  like  that  enjoyed  by  Finland.  Unfortunately, 
the  impatient  and  fantastic  Polanders  rose  in  rebellion 
against  their  best  friend,  following  the  will-o'-the-wisp  of 
French  assistance.  The  Polish  insurrection  was  the  first 
great  misfortune  which  befell  Alexander's  reign,  being  the 


274 

first  defeat  which  his  liberal  policy  suffered.  The  Polish 
uprising  excited  a  tremendous  national  reaction  in  Russia. 
The  bureaucracy,  which  hated  the  Emperors  liberal  ideas, 
used  the  Polish  rebellion  as  a  lever  against  his  liberal 
course.  The  reactionaries  declared  aloud  that  it  was  fatal 
for  Russia,  and  especially  for  the  autocracy,  to  adopt  the 
principles  and  methods  of  European  liberalism.  The  old 
national  prejudices  and  hates  of  the  Russian  people  were 
aroused  to  a  state  of  frenzy.  The  more  Europe  seemed  to 
favor  the  cause  of  Poland,  the  fiercer  and  more  fanatical 
became  the  reaction  against  everything  foreign,  that  is  to 
say,  against  all  the-  influences  of  Western  Europe.  The 
innate  barbarism  of  the  Russian  people  began  once  again 
to  rebel  against  the  forces  of  Western  civilization  repre- 
sented by  the  Emperor.  Public  opinion  and  evil  counsel- 
lors forced  him  against  his  better  nature  to  send  the 
butcher  Muravieff  to  Wilna  and  other  savage  satraps  to 
Warsaw,  where  they  established  a  reign  of  terror  and 
crushed  out  every  vestige  of  the  liberal  regime. 

From  Poland  the  anti-liberal  policy  spread  to  Russia. 
The  old  despotic  officials  who  detested  the  Emperor's  lib- 
eralism, raised  their  heads  again.  They  declared  in  court 
and  through  their  allies  in  the  press,  that  it  was  dangerous 
to  Russia,  and  especially  to  the  autocracy,  to  govern  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  and  methods  of  modern 
liberalism.  They  pointed  to  the  rise  of  Nihilism  as  evi- 
dence that  the  measure  of  freedom  granted  bred  criminal 
discontent  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  tremendous  revolu- 
tion which  would  overthrow  the  dynasty,  or  at  least  reduce 
it  to  the  impotent  position  of  English  royalty.  The 
unhappy  Emperor  battled  on  single-handed  against  the 
national  instincts  of  his  barbarous  and  brutalized  people 
and  against  the  intrigues  and  secret  enmity  of  a  vile  and 
corrupt  bureaucracy.  On  the  one  hand  the  Nihilists  dog- 
ged his  every  step,  determined  to  murder  him  because  he 
refused  to  carry  out  their  wild  schemes  of  social  and  polit- 


275 

ical  revolution,  and  also  because  they  wished  to  avenge  on 
him  the  cruel  persecutions  they  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
his  agents.  On  the  other  hand,  the  old  Russian  party, 
which  abominates  the  chromo-civilization  forcibly  imported 
by  Peter  the  Great  and  upheld,  by  fits  and  starts,  by  some 
of  his  successors,  declared  his  generous  designs  to  civilize 
and  liberalize  Russia  as  fatal  attempts  to  denationalize  the 
Russian  people.  There  arose  in  Moscow  a  powerful  school 
of  reactionary  thinkers  who  protested  that  Western  civiliza- 
tion or  modern  culture  was  effete,  diseased,  immoral,  and 
godless  to  the  core.  They  proclaimed  in  all  seriousness  that 
the  unwashed,  unlicked,  and  illiterate  peasantry  of  Russia 
represented  the  genuine  type  of  Russian  national  manhood. 
They  contended  that  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  was  the 
only  true  form  of  Christianity  and  that  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Holy  Russia  should  be  brought,  by  persuasion,  if  possible, 
and  by  force,  if  necessary,  within  the  pale  of  the  national 
church.  They  declared  that  it  was  the  mission  of  Russia 
to  combat  all  the  vital  ideas  and  to  uproot  the  liberal  insti- 
tutions of  Western  Europe  as  vicious  powers  and  noxious 
growths.  They  taught,  and  still  teach,  that  Russia  was 
providentially  called  to  unite  all  the  Slav  populations  of 
Europe  into  one  all-dominant  Pan-Slavic  nation.  They 
hold  that  this  Pan-Slavic  nation  of  the  future  is  destined 
to  conquer  the  rest  of  Europe,  by  infusing  into  it  its  own 
young  and  healthy  blood,  and  by  inoculating  it  with 
wholesome  ways  of  life  to  rejuvenate  the  effete  and  mori- 
bund European  world.  This  is  the  wild  dream  of  Panslav- 
ism,  without  a  right  comprehension  of  which  the  baneful 
policy  of  Alexander  III.  can  not  be  understood.  This  is 
the  fantastic  ideal  which  a  set  of  very  able  publicists  of 
Moscow  elaborated  and  gave  the  widest  currency.  So 
strong  a  hold  did  it  gain  on  the  ruling  and  educated  classes 
that  Alexander  II.  was  against  his  will  driven  into  the 
Turkish  war,  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  liberating 
their  so-called  Bulgarian  brothers.  During  that  war  the 


276 

unhappy  monarch  learned  to  know  the  utter  rottenness 
and  incompetency  of  his  army,  due  to  the  inconceivable 
and  universal  corruption  which  permeated  the  officials 
both  military  and  civil.  After  immense  sacrifices  of  blood 
and  money  in  a  useless  war,  a  bootless  peace  had  to  be 
concluded.  The  Emperor  returned  to  his  capital  a  broken- 
hearted man.  Yet  he  still  struggled  on,  although  he  had 
lost  faith  in  the  possibility  of  carrying  out  his  plan  of 
regenerating  Russia.  He  recognized  that  he  lacked  the 
proper  agents,  through  whom  he  might  work  out  his 
beneficent  designs.  The  official  classes  thwarted  his  pur- 
poses by  lying,  stealing,  and  knavery  of  every  kind.  The 
last  years  of  the  noble  prince  were  full  of  gloom.  At  last 
he  was  hunted  down  and  massacred  by  the  inexorable 
Nihilists.  Some  competent  observers  of  that  mournful 
event  asserted  that  his  murder  was  connived  at  by  certain 
high  officials.  On  the  very  day  he  was  slaughtered  he  had 
intended  to  set  his  name  under  a  constitution  which  he 
had  resolved  to  give  to  the  Russian  people. 

The  sudden  and  shocking  death  of  his  father  put  upon 
Alexander  III.  the  fearful  responsibility  of  guiding  for 
good  or  evil  the  destinies  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  mil- 
lion human  beings.  Which  road  should  he  travel?  Should 
he  go  forward,  following  the  course  pursued  by  his  father, 
or  should  he  entirely  abandon  the  path  of  liberal  reform 
and  go  back  to  old  Russian  methods  of  despotic  govern- 
ment ?  He  did  not  hesitate  long  in  making  his  choice. 
The  terrible  end  of  his  father  was  regarded  by  him  as  an 
unmistakable  proof  that  liberalism  was  a  fatal  policy, 
which  must  needs  lead  to  the  overthrow  of  autocracy  and 
perhaps  to  the  disruption  of  the  empire.  He  had  been 
brought  up  under  the  influence  of  the  old  Russian  Pan- 
slavistic  party  of  Moscow.  The  chiefest  teacher  and  guide 
of  his  youth  had  been  Pobiedonostseff,  the  Procurator 
of  the  Holy  Synod.  This  remarkable  personage  is  the 
very  incarnation  of  the  national  reaction  in  religion  and 


government.  He  is  a  fanatic  of  the  fiercest  and  most 
uncompromising  type.  "  He  is  a  modern  Torquemada,"  as 
someone  has  said.  "He  is  a  sincerely  and  fanatically  pious 
man,  as  the  Greek  Church  understands  piety.  During  the 
great  fast  of  the  year  he  retires  to  a  monastery  and  morti- 
fies his  flesh  like  any  anchorite,  remaining  for  days  on  his 
knees,  fasting  and  beating  his  forehead  against  the  stone 
floor.  This  does  not  prevent  him  from  uttering  the  most 
amazing  and  barefaced  lies."  Like  the  dreadful  persecu- 
tors of  Spain,  he  does  not  shrink  from  committing  mon- 
strous cruelties  against  Catholics,  Lutherans,  dissenters,  and 
Jews  for  the  greater  glory  of  God.  Acting  in  accordance 
with  the  satanic  logic  of  medieval  fanaticism,  he  holds  it 
right  to  serve  God  with  falsehood,  with  theft,  with  shame- 
less treachery,  with  torture,  massacre,  and  wholesale  perse- 
cution. This  man  became  the  Czar's  chief  adviser  and 
most  trusted  friend.  By  him  the  narrow  mind  of  the 
Emperor  was  thoroughly  impregnated  with  the  idea  pro- 
mulgated by  the  Moscow  school  of  reactionary  thinkers 
that  the  Orthodox  Church  was  the  one  prop  of  social  order 
and  autocracy.  From  him  he  learned  to  adopt  the  vicious 
theory  that  the  Russian  state  is  identical  with  the  Ortho- 
dox Church.  He  taught  him  to  draw  the  inference  that 
all  his  subjects  who  stand  outside  the  church  are  the  nat- 
ural-born enemies  of  the  nation  and  the  dynasty,  and 
should  by  all  means,  fair  or  foul,  be  brought  within  its 
pale. 

The  mind  of  the  ruling  classes,  including  the  dynasty, 
is  haunted  by  the  fear  that  a  tremendous  revolution  will 
one  day  shake  up  Russia  from  center  to  circumference. 
To  stave  off  the  day  [of  wrath  and  if  possible  to  prevent 
its  coming,  is  the  chief  aim  of  her  statesmen.  To  the 
reactionaries  the  Church  alone  seems  to  offer  the  sought- 
for  means  of  salvation.  For  the  Church  is,  indeed,  thor- 
oughly Russian.  It  represents  the  primitive  national  bar- 
barism. It  is  devoid  of  all  spiritual  and  progressive  life, 


278 

and  its  ignorant  ministers  are  on  a  level  with  the  drunken 
and  bestialized  peasantry.  If  all  the  inhabitants  of  Rus- 
sia could  be  permanently  brought  under  the  stupefying 
and  soul-killing  influence  of  that  Church,  if  all  could  be 
made  to  embrace  its  teaching  of  slavish  submission  and 
unquestioning  obedience  to  the  God-Czar,  there  would  be 
little  danger  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  will  ever  possess  the 
Russian  people  and  cause  it]  to  break  the  fetters  of  despot- 
ism. This  idea  became  the  guiding  principle  of  the  late 
Emperor's  policy.  This  belief  of  his  furnishes  the  key  to 
his  otherwise  unaccountable  conduct  toward  the  Catholics, 
the  Lutherans,  the  dissenters,  and  the  Jews,  whom  he  per- 
secuted with  merciless  cruelty.  He  honestly  believed  that 
it  was  his  sacred  duty  to  make  them  all  good  Orthodox 
Christians,  and  to  transform  what 'he  considered  dangerous 
foreign  elements  into  genuine  Russians. 

This  was  the  true  motive  which  set  on  foot  the  cruel 
persecution  of  the  dissenters,  and  more  especially  of  the 
hapless  and  helpless  Jews.  It  was  not  the  wanton  cruelty 
of  a  bloodthirsty  tyrant,  but  the  impious  and  suicidal  pol- 
icy of  blind  fanaticism  and  senseless  statecraft  which 
caused  the  Czar  to  commit  such  inhuman  crimes  against 
the  most  intelligent,  useful,  and  inoffensive  part  of  his 
people.  The  original  intention  was  to  make  life  outside 
the  Orthodox  Church  absolutely  intolerable  to  the  non- 
Orthodox  Christians,  and  most  especially  to  the  Jews,  so  as 
to  drive  them  from  sheer  despair  into  the  National  Church. 
The  villainous  officials,  high  and  low,  were  glad  of  an 
opportunity  to  show  their  devotion  to  the  Czar  by  acts  of 
persecution  and  rapine  which  satisfied  the  savage  instincts 
of  their  natures.  The  very  men  who  had  a  short  time  before 
publicly  borne  testimony  to  the  usefulness  and  patriotism 
of  the  Jews,  suddenly  turned  with  the  wind  blowing 
from  St.  Petersburg  and  became  their  most  violent  haters 
and  persecutors.  There  was  enacted  a  drama  of  horrors, 
of  fiendish  outrages  upon  the  primary  rights  and  the  eter- 


279 

nal  sanctities  of  humanity,  which  has  added  another  dark 
page  to  the  record  of  mankind's  shame.  There  ensued  a 
carnival  of  lying,  plunder,  and  murder.  The  Jews  were 
hunted  down  like  wild  beasts.  They  were  driven  from 
their  homes  in  the  very  heart  of  one  of  the  coldest  Rus- 
sian winters.  Their  homes  were  surrounded  by  the  police 
at  midnight;  the  inmates,  without  regard  to  age  or  sex, 
sick  and  dying  people,  women  in  ths  most  delicate  condi- 
tion, with  their  babes  a  few  days  old,  were  dragged  out  of 
their  beds  and  driven  to  jail  through  the  streets,  while  the 
thermometer  stood  at  thirty  degrees  below  zero.  Those 
who  fled  wandered  through  the  woods  or  took  refuge  in 
neighboring  cemeteries.  One  woman,  while  fleeing  from 
her  invaded  home,  became  sequestered  from  her  husband 
and  son  and  made  her  way  alone  to  the  Orthodox  ceme- 
tery. She  was  found  by  the  morning  light,  lying  insensible 
on  the  frosted  grass  among  the  graves.  Beside  her  was  a 
dead  child,  to  which  she  had  given  birth  during  the  dread- 
ful night.  The  expulsions  from  Moscow  on  the  22d  of 
January,  1892,  reached  the  climax  of  horror.  On  that  day 
the  thermometer  marked  thirty-four  degrees  below  zero, 
Fahrenheit.  The  gas  could  not  burn  in  the  street  lamps 
in  such  a  temperature,  great  bonfires  were  kept  blazing  in 
the  squares  and  at  corners  to  prevent  citizens  compelled  to 
be  out  of  doors  from  freezing  as  they  walked,  the  schools 
were  closed,  and  garrison  drills  suspended,  the  forwarding 
of  criminals  from  the  central  prison  was  stopped  for  the 
time  being,  owing  to  the  terrible  cold.  But  several  thou- 
sand Jews  were  compelled  to  leave  the  city  on  that  very 
day.  Four  little  children  were  frozen  to  death  in  the 
streets  on  their  way  to  the  railway  station.  Over  a  million 
Jews  have  been  chased  into  the  over-crowded  Pale,  where 
the  fierce  struggle  for  existence  has  been  and  is  still  caus- 
ing a  state  of  misery  which  only  the  pen  of  a  Milton  would 
be  able  adequately  to  describe.  The  Jews  during  the  reign 
of  Alexander  III.  have  been  treated,  in  accordance  with  his 


280 

decrees,  as  pariahs  and  outlaws.  Their  personal  liberty 
has  been  completely  taken  away  from  them,  their  religion 
proscribed,  and  their  very  souls  killed  by  the  contempt 
heaped  upon  them. 

The  wholesale  expulsion  and  pauperism  of  the  Jews 
have  proved  most  disastrous  to  the  economic  welfare  of  the 
Russian  people.  The  commerce  and  the  agriculture  of 
vast  provinces  have  been  smitten  as  with  a  blight.  But 
Czar  Alexander  III.  stuck  to  the  policy  mapped  out  for 
him  by  his  Panslavic  counsellors,  to  give  all  Russia  uni- 
formity and  security  from  revolution  by  compelling  all  her 
inhabitants  to  enter  the  Orthodox  Church.  Part  of  this 
plan  was  to  keep  the  masses  in  a  state  of  brutish  igno- 
rance, to  confine  education  to  the  higher  classes,  to  pro- 
scribe the  free  movements  of  national  intelligence,  to  sup- 
press with  ruthless  cruelty  the  lovers  of  liberty,  to  train 
all  minds  to  be  in  love  with  despotism.  He  was,  after  all, 
but  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Panslavistic  reactionaries, 
whose  theories  and  aims  have  been  described  above.  But, 
tool  as  he  was,  he  lent  to  their  barbarous  schemes  the  tre- 
mendous power  at  his  disposal.  He  undid  all  the  good 
work  done  by  his  high-minded  father.  He  has  driven  the 
Russian  people  back  to  where  it  was  under  his  grand- 
father, Nicholas,  and  in  many  respects  he  made  it  go  still 
further  in  a  backward  direction.  The  peasantry  has  been 
pauperized  by  grinding  taxation  and  by  a  most  pernicious 
economic  policy.  By  encouraging  the  excessive  use  of 
liquor,  from  which  the  exchequer  derived  the  largest  part 
of  its  revenue,  by  suppressing  all  temperance  movements, 
he  has  caused  the  peasants  to  become  still  more  brutalized. 
By  abolishing  thousands  of  communal  schools  and  placing 
the  remaining  ones  under  the  supervision  of  the  ignorant 
and  debauched  orthodox  clergy,  by  denying  to  whole 
classes  access  to  the  educational  institutions,  he  has  sys- 
tematically bred  ignorance  and  fostered  all  the  evils  flow- 
ing from  it.  By  oppressing  the  dissenters  in  the  most 


28l 

cruel  manner,  by  punishing  peasants  with  flogging  and 
exile  for  studying  the  Scriptures,  he  did  his  utmost  to  dry 
up  in  the  Russian  people  the  fountains  of  religious  and 
moral  life. 

History  will  sit  in  judgment  on  his  reign  and  will 
declare  it]  to  have  been  a  curse  to  the  Russian  people,  and 
in  some  vital  points  a  bane  to  modern  civilization.  That 
he  was  not  a  bad  man  at  heart,  that  the  untold  evil  he  did 
and  suffered  to  be  done,  did  not  spring  from  a  spirit  of 
wanton  wickedness,  makes  the  case  still  more  deplorable 
and  still  more  disheartening  to  the  believers  in  an  over- 
ruling Providence  governing  the  destinies  of  mankind 
through  human  agency.  The  great  criminals  known  to 
history  were  not,  as  a  rule,  wicked  men  in  the  narrow  sense 
of  the  word.  They  were  seldom  persons  addicted  to  com- 
mon vices,  they  were  not  led  to  commit  acts  of  inhumanity 
by  the  mere  love  of  evil.  Licentious  rulers  are  usually  too 
easy-going,  too  much  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure, 
to  care  very  much  about  carrying  out  any  consistent  pol- 
icy, good  or  bad.  They  leave  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  to  their  ministers,  whom  they  change  at  their 
caprice.  Voluptuaries,  they  are,  moreover,  as  a  rule  sensi- 
tive to  the  censure  of  public  opinion  which  disturbs  them 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  sensual  vices.  Like  all  rakes, 
they  believe  in  nothing,  neither  in  God  nor  in  man  nor  in 
any  principle,  and  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  serve  the 
cause  of  heaven  or  of  Satan.  Again,  constitutionally  cruel 
men  are  rare  phenomena.  The  monsters  of  the  past,  who 
wantonly  shed  blood  and  committed  other  useless  crimes, 
were  most  of  them  monomaniacs.  The  most  dangerous 
men  in  power,  the  most  ruthless  destroyers  of  human  life 
and  happiness,  are  the  virtuous  fanatics,  who  honestly 
believe  in  some  false  and  pernicious  principle,  and  try  to 
carry  it  out  to  its  utmost  consequences.  They  are  firmly 
convinced  that  they  have  a  sacred  mission  to  save  society 
at  any  cost.  They  consider  themselves  providentially  com- 


282 

missioned  to  realize  a  certain  policy,  be  it  religious  or 
political,  without  regard  to  the  current  idea  of  justice  and 
mercy.  These  saviors  of  religion  and  society  think  them- 
selves justified  in  committing  any  crime  for  the  glory  of 
God  or  the  welfare  of  the  state,  regarding  nothing  as  a 
crime  which  serves  the  end  they  have  proposed  to  them- 
selves. They  do  not  spare  themselves  nor  do  they  spare 
any  man  who  stands  in  their  way.  They  calmly  carve 
human  victims  as  sacrifices  on  the  altar  of  God  or  of  the 
state.  Hecatombs  of  men,  women,  and  children  are  immo- 
lated to  what  is  regarded  as  the  supreme  good,  be  it  called 
Olympian  Jove,  or  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  or  the  God- 
dess of  Reason  and  Revolution,  or  the  Orthodox  Russian 
Church,  or  the  Autocracy.  The  dreadful  grand  inquisitors, 
who  tortured  and  burned  myriads  of  human  beings  and 
turned  many  a  blooming  land  into  a  howling  wilderness, 
were  intensely  religious  persons.  They  were  men  of  pure 
and  exemplary  lives.  They  mortified  their  flesh,  fasting 
many  days,  scourging  their  body  and  praying  on  their 
knees  through  many  a  night.  Robespierre  was  a  most 
virtuous  man.  All  the  Terrorists  of  the  great  Committee 
of  Safety,  who  in  cold  blood  sent  thousands  of  their  fellow- 
beings  to  the  guillotine,  were  sober,  earnest,  and  honest 
men.  One  such  virtuous  fanatic  and  great  criminal  from 
honest  convictions  was  the  late  Czar  Alexander  III.  Like 
the  others  he  held  that  the  interests  of  religion,  of  the  state, 
or  of  the  nation  should  override  the  common  rights  and 
equities  of  humanity,  and  that  crimes  of  every  kind  are 
legitimate  means  to  compass  about  the  assumed  ends  of 
statesmanship.  But  what  mortal,  be  he  the  wisest  and  great- 
est, has  the  wisdom  and  the  right  to  decide  that  there  is  a 
good  which  is  better  than  universal  justice,  that  there  is 
any  interest  higher  than  the  eternal  rights  of  humanity 
common  to  all  the  children  of  God?  There  is  but  one 
safe  principle  for  churches,,  empires,  and  republics  to  live 
and  act  by — to  do  justice  toward  all  men  without  distinc- 
tion of  race  and  creed,  to  practice  mercy  at  any  price 


283 

toward  all  human  beings.  As  soon  as  statesmen  and 
nations  forsake  this  everlasting  principle,  they  are  at  sea 
without  a  moral  compass  and  readily  fall  a  prey  to  the  dark 
powers  which  lurk  in  the  depths  of  man's  lower  nature  to 
beguile  and  betray  him  into  acts  of  inhumanity. 

Alexander  III.  fell  a  prey  to  the  dark  powers  and 
became  the  author  of  infinite  woe,  committing  unpardon- 
able sins  against  God  and  humanity.  Pobiedonostseff  was 
his  evil  genius.  The  Panslavists  of  Moscow  were  his  evil 
counsellors  who  seduced  him.  The  barbarism  and  slavish 
nature  of  the  Russian  people  led  him  to  set  back  the  dials 
of  time.  The  desperate  condition  of  the  autocracy  and 
threats  of  Nihilism  urged  him  on.  His  narrow  mind  and 
undeveloped  nature  made  him  a  fit  vessel  to  receive  all 
the  poison  flowing  toward  him,  and  then  to  diffuse  it  as  a 
deadly  force  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
What  saddens  the  lover  of  man  and  of  progress  most  is 
the  thought  that  the  accident  of  birth  should  have  put  into 
the  hands  of  so  incapable  a  person  so  much  power  for  evil. 
The  horrors  of  his  reign  caused  many  an  agonized  soul  to 
question  the  existence  or  the  goodness  of  God.  We  used 
to  hate  him  with  the  most  intense  hatred  as  the  worst 
enemy  of  humanity.  But  from  the  moment  that  it  became 
known  that  he  was  suffering  excruciating  pain  our  hatred 
was  suddenly  and  wholly  gone.  We  could  wish  him  no 
ill.  He  was,  after  all,  a  poor  mortal  like  us.  He  felt  the 
pangs  of  nature  and  passed  through  the  throes  of  death 
like  our  dearest  friends  whom  we  mourn.  One  touch  of 
suffering  makes  all  men  kin.  There  is  a  conciliating  and 
pardoning  power  in  death.  We  pity  his  faithful  wife, 
although  he  had  no  pity  for  the  thousands  of  widows  and 
orphans  he  made.  Let  us  think  of  him  in  a  spirit  of 
charity.  We  have  charity  for  the  criminal  who  dies  on  a 
gibbet.  Let  us  have  charity  for  the  criminal  who  dies  on 
a  throne,  pitying  him  as  our  misguided  brother !  Let  our 
judgment  show  the  quality  of  mercy ! 


JOHN  ALBERT  BROADUS. 


A  MEMORIAL  SERMON. 


'T^HE  glory  of  Louisville  has  departed  from  her  with  the 
departure  of  John  A.  Broadus.  The  splendor,  the 
ornament  of  this  place  is  gone,  since  the  greatest  and  saint- 
liest  man  who  had  dwelt  in  it  has  left  it  forever,  never  to 
return.  Our  city  is  like  a  ring,  the  precious  stone  of  which 
has  been  torn  from  its  setting  and  become  lost.  All  feel 
the  general  loss,  but  his  personal  friends  mourn  over  the 
fact  that  they  have  been  bereft  of  a  great  spiritual  force 
under  whose  directing  and  elevating  influence  they  had 
stood  for  years.  There  was  a  moral  magnetism  about  him, 
an  uplifting  power  in  his  personality  which  no  one  could 
help  experiencing  who  was  in  more  or  less  close  contact 
with  him.  In  his  presence  you  felt  like  exclaiming:  "Ecce 
homo — behold  a  genuine  man;  behold  an  ideal  man!"  It 
was  borne  in  upon  you  that  you  were  standing  face  to  face 
with  one  of  the  great  and  original  men  of  earth,  with  one 
who  towered  high  above  you  in  intellect  and  knowledge, 
in  will-power  and  nobility  of  character,  in  breadth  of  cult- 
ure and  refinement  of  manners,  and  in  those  indefinable 
spiritual  powers  and  qualities  of  mercy  which  mark  off  a 
few  men  as  the  children  of  light  and  immortality.  Still, 
the  consciousness  of  your  mental  and  moral  inferiority,  as 
compared  with  him,  did  not  humiliate  and  pain  you.  So 
lovable  and  full  of  grace  was  that  large,  sweet  soul  that 
you  actually  rejoiced  in  knowing  and  acknowledging  that 
he  was  a  greater,  wiser,  and  better  man  than  you.  His  great 
superiority  in  all  things  in  which  ambitious  men  aspire  to 


excel  never  excited  envy.  His  rich,  full,  and  strong  person- 
ality almost  seemed  to  have  nothing  personal  in  it,  so  abso- 
lutely free  was  he  from  self-assertiveness,  from  self-conscious- 
ness. So  humble  was  Broadus,  the  man  of  God,  and  so 
spontaneous  were  the  varied  manifestations  of  his  genius 
that  people  accepted  him,  as  it  were,  as  a  natural  blessed 
fact,  and  regarded  him  as  one  of  those  beneficent  realities 
for  which  we  are  thankful  to  the  Giver  of  all  good. 

We  took  pride  in  his  greatness,  as  if  it  were  in  part  our 
own.  We  gloried  in  his  fame  and  in  his  immortal  achieve- 
ments, as  if  we  had  a  share  in  them.  We  felt  that  his 
extraordinary  powers  and  singularly  beautiful  life  shed 
lustre  on  our  common  humanity,  that  we  were  all  elevated 
with  him  and  made  wise  in  his  wisdom.  The  strange  feel- 
ing which  possessed  his  friends — that  his  light  and  strength, 
his  sweetness  and  moral  excellencies  belonged  to  us  all; 
that  they  were  simply  the  forces  of  man's  higher  nature 
revealing  themselves  and  acting  in  him — was  the  reason 
why  his  presence  made  us  think  better  of  ourselves,  raised 
us  in  our  own  estimation,  and  inspired  us  with  confidence 
in  our  own  intellectual  and  moral  faculties.  We  'Lsaw  our 
spiritual  aspirations  and  our  noblest  ambitions  realized  in 
a  fellow-mortal  who  loved  us,  and  walked  before  us  in 
meekness,  never  intimating  that  he  was  the  leader,  never 
showing  by  word  or  sign  that  it  cost  him  an  effort  to  take 
us  with  him  as  his  companions  on  his  journey.  His  pres- 
ence somehow  tamed  and  put  to  sleep  all  low  elements  of 
our  nature,  hushed  the  voice  of  selfish  passions,  and  made 
us  for  the  time  being  feel  that  we  were  worthy  of  being 
his  associates.  The  fact  is,  in  loving  and  venerating 
Broadus  we  loved  goodness  as  realized  by  a  few  rare  mor- 
tals such  as  he,  and  paid  homage  to  the  spirit  of  faith 
which  lived  incarnate  in  him. 

He  was  the  most  intensely  and  genuinely  religious  man 
I  ever  knew.  Religion  was  not  with  him  some  theory  of 
divine  government  which  he  professed,  no  system  of  theol- 
ogy which  he  accepted  and  taught.  Religion  was  life  itself 


286 

with  him.  Faith  in  God  was  the  very  heart  of  his  moral 
and  spiritual  being,  and  the  spring  of  his  power.  The  fear 
of  God  and  the  love  of  God,  hatred  of  evil  and  love  of 
righteousness  dwelt  central  in  his  soul  as  its  ultimate, 
ruling  ideas.  They  were  the  controlling  and  molding 
forces  of  his  character.  They  gave  tone  and  color,  coher- 
ence and  direction  to  all  his  thoughts.  They  determined 
all  his  actions  from  the  greatest  to  the  least  significant, 
from  composing  a  standard  work  or  establishing  a  semi- 
nary to  writing  a  note  recommending  a  worthy  person  to 
a  friend's  kindness.  Of  him  it  may  be  truly  said  that  he 
walked  with  God.  To  him  the  belief  in  God  and  His  sav- 
ing mercy  was  not  a  creed  learned  of  men,  but  an  immedi- 
ate intuition,  a  soul-born  conviction.  The  existence  of  a 
righteous  and  redeeming  God  was  to  his  mind  a  self-evi- 
dent truth.  To  his  consciousness  it  was  surer  than  any 
facts  gathered  by  experience,  truer  than  any  axiom  and 
principle  of  science.  The  idea  of  God,  of  His  justice  and 
abounding  grace,  was  an  ever  present  reality,  with  which 
he  stood  face  to  face  in  loving  communion  and  daily  expe- 
rience. He  took  delight  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  His 
service.  To  him  religion  was  not  a  spiritual  luxury,  a  per- 
sonal privilege,  a  way  of  securing  his  own  salvation  here 
and  hereafter.  To  him  religion  meant  doing  the  work  of 
our  Heavenly  Master  with  all  our  heart,  with  all  our  soul, 
and  all  our  might.  As  the  hart  pants  after  the  brooks  of 
water,  so  did  John  A.  Broadus,  the  inspired  servant  of  God, 
long  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  to  save 
men  from  the  curse  of  degradation,  of  sin,  and  win  them 
back  to  the  higher  life. 

If  there  ever  was  a  true  servant  of  the  Lord  who  loved 
and  served  Him  with  an  undivided  heart,  it  was  John  A. 
Broadus.  He  loved  God  as  Abraham  did,  striving  like  him 
to  spread  the  love  of  God  among  men.  More  than  through 
the  charm  of  his  eloquence  did  he  win  men  from  sin  and 
lead  them  to  God  through  the  witchcraft  of  his  example. 


287 

His  conduct  was  such  that  men  came  to  love  God  through 
him.  To  him  may  in  very  deed  be  applied  the  words  of 
Isaiah:  "The  spirit  of  Yahve  rested  upon  him;  the  spirit 
of  wisdom  and  understanding;  the  spirit  of  counsel  and 
might;  the  spirit  of  the  knowledge  and  the  fear  of  God." 

Consider  it  well,  Israelites  and  Christians  ;  mark  the 
meaning  of  this  highest  tribute  paid  by  a  rabbi  to  the 
religious  power  and  saintly  character  of  a  Christian  divine, 
of  a  teacher  of  uncompromising  trinitarian  Christianity!  I 
have  always  differed,  and  as  long  as  there  will  be  breath  in 
me  I  shall  differ,  from  him  as  to  the  characteristic  dogmas 
of  Christianity,  to  which  he  clung  with  every  fiber  of  his 
being.  But  when  I  contemplate  the  holy  life  of  this  typ- 
ical Christian,  and  find  it  in  all  its  essentials  marvelously 
like  the  life  of  Jewish  saints  and  martyrs,  I  come  to  realize 
that  behind  the  different  dogmas  of  Judaism  and  Christian- 
ity there  is  the  indestructible  unity  of  religious  essence,  of 
moral  ideals,  and  sanctifying  power.  Before  I  became 
familiar  with  Dr.  Broadus  I  knew  Christianity  only  as  a 
creed  which  seemed  absolutely  incomprehensible  to  me.  I 
judged  it  mainly  from  the  untold,  unmerited  misery,  the 
agony  of  ages  which  Christian  rulers  and  nations  had 
entailed  on  poor  Israel  under  the  impulse  given  by  Chris- 
tian priests  and  teachers.  But  when  I  learned  to  know  and 
revere  in  Broadus  a  Christian  who  was  truly  a  man  of  God, 
in  whom  there  was  the  spirit  of  justice  and  mercy,  the 
spirit  of  brotherly  love  toward  all  men  without  distinction 
of  nationality,  race,  or  creed,  my  conception  of  Christian- 
ity and  my  attitude  toward  it  underwent  a  complete  change. 
For  the  first  time  in  my  life  Christianity  presented  itself 
to  me,  not  as  a  bundle  of  unfathomable  dogmas,  but  as  a 
living  power  for  good,  as  actualized  in  an  ideal  man. 
Broadus  was  the  precious  fruit  by  which  I  learned  to  judge 
of  the  tree  of  Christianity.  Would  there  were  many  Chris- 
tians like  Broadus  in  the  world  to  bless  it,  and  bring  peace 
and  good-will  to  all  men  !  The  strife  and  bitterness  of 


288 

ages,  the  mutual  misjudgments  and  historical  recrimina- 
tions would  soon  cease  among  kindred  religions.  Jews 
and  Christians  would  soon  recognize  that  they  are,  under 
different  standards,  doing  battle  for  the  same  eternal  cause, 
for  spirituality  and  holiness,  for  the  brotherhood  of  all  men 
in  God,  their  common  father,  for  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth.  Sinai  and  Golgotha  would 
no  longer  be  standing  for  conflicting  creeds,  but  would  be 
the  spiritual  symbols  of  the  one  only  true  and  universal 
religion,  of  which  Judaism  and  Christianity  represent  each 
a  special  aspect  and  carry  on  each  a  peculiar  mission.  Oh, 
that  the  mantle  of  the  wise  master  would  fall  on  many  disci- 
ples, that  they  may  have  a  double  share  in  his  spirit  of 
broad  humanity,  and  continue  the  work  of  uniting  the 
hearts  and  wills  of  men  in  the  service  of  God  which  the 
great  man  has  left  unfinished! 

What  a  blessed  privilege  it  is  to  have  been  familiar 
with  a  great  man,  to  have  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  his 
genius !  What  a  precious  memory  it  will  be  to  have 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  a  man  like  Broadus,  to  have  often 
listened  to  his  sparkling  conversation  and  to  his  inspiring 
sermons.  What  rare  and  radiant  creatures  truly  great  men 
are  !  When  God  makes  a  great  man,  He  equips  him  with 
marvelous  powers  and  graces  of  mind  and  heart  which  ren- 
der him  the  wonder  and  delight  of  his  age. 

What  a  keen,  capacious,  and  lumious  mind  Broadus 
had  !  His  intellect  penetrated  with  native  force  to  the 
heart  of  every  problem  he  dealt  with.  He  mastered  with 
an  easy  grace  the  profoundest  and  abstrusest  questions  in 
metaphysics  and  theology.  He  was  a  deep,  philosophical 
thinker,  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  various  systems 
of  ancient,  medieval,  and  modern  speculation,  and  fully 
understood  their  mutual  relations  and  the  meandering 
course  of  their  development.  He  ranked  among  the  fore- 
most theologians  of  our  time.  He  and  his  lamented  friend, 
Boyce,  were  the  greatest  and  most  original  exponents  of 


289 

Christian  theology  within  the  Baptist  Church.  He  under- 
stood the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New,  and 
the  mighty  currents  of  their  religious  and  moral  forces  as 
few  men  of  our  time  did.  Being  himself  an  inspired  man, 
he  was  by  native  insight  at  home  with  the  prophets,  apos- 
tles, and  wise  men  of  Israel.  The  seers  of  Zion  spake  to 
him  as  to  a  kindred  soul.  He  was  no  occasional  visitor 
with  them,  catching  now  and  then  a  glimpse  of  their  beauty, 
truth,  purity,  and  morality;  he  was  familiar  in  all  their 
house.  Few  men  had  as  clear  and  keen  an  appreciation  of 
the  sublime  oratory  of  the  Bible  as  he.  In  his  history  of 
preaching  Broadus,  who  was  one  of  the  greatest  preachers 
of  all  times,  gave  striking  proof  of  his  affinity  to  the  immor- 
tal preachers  of  Israel.  His  knowledge  of  the  whole  field 
of  biblical  literature  was  simply  amazing.  He  was  a  great 
biblical  scholar.  He  was  no  dry-as-dust  pedant  who  gropes 
about  the  outside  of  the  temple  of  the  Scripture  and  now 
and  then  picks  up  and  with  great  glee  explains  an  antique 
fragment.  By  virtue  of  penetrating  sympathy  and  original 
power,  he  worked  his  way  into  the  holy  of  holies  of  the 
Bible.  He  commented  on  the  world's  seers  and  on  the 
volumes  in  which  their  imperishable  thoughts  are  enshrined 
like  one  in  authority.  His  commentary  on  Matthew  will 
remain  an  everlasting  monument  to  his  ripe  scholarship,  to 
his  strong  grasp  of  central  ideas,  and  his  masterful  literary 
style. 

His  style  is  as  clear  and  transparent  as  the  limpid 
brook.  Because  one  seems  to  look  to  the  very  bottom  of 
his  thoughts,  one  might  imagine  that  they  are  not  deep. 
But  let  us  just  try  to  dive  down  into  the  current  of  his 
ideas,  and  we  will  soon  find  that  there  are  deeps  under- 
neath deeps.  He  possessed  the  rare  faculty  of  making  the 
most  difficult  and  complex  matter  appear  as  simple  and 
clear  as  a  child's  problem  in  arithmetic. 

He  was  a  philologian  of  uncommon  attainments. 
Greek  and  Latin  were  as  familiar  to  him  as  his  mother 


290 

tongue.  He  thoroughly  understood  the  language  of  nearly 
every  European  literature.  His  mind  was  stored  with  a 
vast  amount  of  knowledge,  culled  from  every  field  of  liter- 
ature, ancient  and  modern,  Asiatic  and  European.  He 
was  familiar  with  the  best  results  of  science,  and  with 
her  methods  and  principles.  Still  he  would  not  be  over- 
awed by  any  second-rate  scientist,  who  gave  out  his  per- 
sonal lucubrations  and  subjective  theories  as  the  deliver- 
ances of  infallible  Science — with  a  capital  letter.  He  was 
a  profound  student  of  history.  The  landscape  of  the  past 
lay  clear  before  his  mind's  eye.  To  his  comprehensive 
mind  the  history  of  mankind  was  no  jungle  of  accidents, 
delusions,  follies,  and  crimes,  of  battles  and  conquests,  of 
migrations  and  discoveries.  He  was  firmly  convinced  that 
a  divine  plan  of  love  was  realizing  in  all  the  vicissitudes, 
changes,  and  evolutions  of  humanity's  secular  life.  He 
saw  an  eternal  purpose  of  justice  and  mercy  running 
through  all  times,  giving  unity  to  all  periods  and  events, 
and  imparting  a  lofty  meaning  to  all  the  struggles  and 
sufferings,  the  aspirations  and  victories  of  the  human  race. 
This  belief  in  an  overruling  Providence,  making  for  right- 
eousness and  blessedness,  made  him  an  optimist  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word.  He  never  despaired  of  human  nature ; 
he  never  lost  faith  in  the  ultimate  victory  of  good  and  evil. 
Even  the  phenomena  of  reeking  corruption  and  disgrace- 
ful demagogism,  which  saddened  his  patriotic  heart,  could 
not  rob  him  of  the  belief  that  liberty  will,  under  God's 
providence,  work  out  her  salvation  and  solve  the  most  dif- 
ficult problems  in  our  America. 

He  had  a  quenchless  thirst  for  knowledge  of  every  kind. 
He  knew  perhaps  every  good  book  in  English,  American, 
and  continental  literature.  He  read  with  avidity,  from  the 
ponderous  volume  on  biography,  history,  science,  philology, 
and  travel,  down  to  the  light  novel  of  the  day.  He  read 
rapidly,  yet  absorbed  what  was  worth  remembering  in  any 
work.  He  was  an  ardent  lover  and  fine  judge  of  poetry. 


291 

The  great  poets  were,  next  to  the  Bible,  his  dearest  com- 
panions, his  comforters  in  days  of  sorrow,  his  inspirers  in 
seasons  of  intellectual  ebbing.  Among  others  he  held 
Browning  in  highest  estimation,  regarding  him  as  one  of 
the  world's  great  seers. 

His  tastes  were  catholic  and  his  range  of  knowledge 
was  of  universal  scope.  He  seemed  to  be  at  home  in  every 
province  of  human  knowledge.  In  hearing  him  lecture  or 
converse  on  any  subject  one  was  tempted  to  think  that  he 
had  devoted  many  years  of  painstaking  study  to  just  that 
particular  subject.  Much  he  learned  from  books,  but  much 
more  he  gained  from  personal  observation.  He  was  a  keen 
observer  of  men,  of  things,  and  of  times.  He  looked  quite 
through  the  people  with  whom  he  happened  to  be  thrown. 
He  understood  at  a  glance  the  permanent  qualities  and 
forces  of  a  man's  character.  He  was  full  of  pleasant  and 
instructive  reminiscences  of  the  great  men  whom  he  had 
known  and  been  in  close  touch  with  in  America  and 
Europe.  He  had  traveled  extensively  in  Europe ;  had  vis- 
ited Egypt  and  Palestine.  He  knew  the  cities,  the  arts, 
the  habits  of  mind,  and  the  manners  of  the  nations  he  had 
observed. 

His  conversation  was,  therefore,  extremely  instructive 
and  entertaining.  He  possessed  wonderful  conversational 
powers.  He  was  the  most  charming  and  brilliant  conver- 
sationalist I:  have  known.  He  touched  on  no  subject  but 
he  adorned  and  illumined  it.  Whatever  the  subject  of  con- 
versation, he  opened  large  and  new  vistas  to  the  surprise 
and  delight  of  his  admiring  friends.  However  trite  and 
stale  the  topic,  he  lifted  it  to  a  higher  plane.  There  was 
a  play  of  fine  humor  and  wit  in  his  talk.  But  he  never 
employed  the  weapon  of  sarcasm  or  irony.  He  never 
abused  his  great  intellectual  powers  in  debate.  In  fact,  he 
was  not  conscious  of  them.  There  was  such  a  touching  gen- 
tleness in  his  voice,  such  a  noble  modesty  in  his  demeanor, 
that  it  was  a  pleasure  to  bow  to  his  superiority.  He  was  an 


292 

excellent  listener.  He  was  all  attention  and  eagerness  to 
hear  what  one  had  to  say.  He  seemed  to  be  expecting  to 
receive  from  you  some  message  of  higher  truth  and  new 
light.  He  greeted  the  most  ordinary  persons  with  gracious 
cordiality  and  utmost  respect.  Ah,  it  was  his  delight  to 
honor  and  love  men,  and  to  inspire  them  with  self-respect 
and  moral  courage.  The  central  warmth  of  his  great  heart 
diffused  itself  as  a  genial  influence  in  glance  and  smile,  in 
clasp  and  word,  on  his  family,  his  friends,  his  disciples. 
Broadus  was  an  ideal  American  gentleman.  He  was  per- 
haps the  most  amiable  and  loveable  Southerner  of  his  time. 

There  was  a  refinement  about  him,  an  indescribable 
charm  of  manner,  a  sweetness  of  temper,  a  joyous  kind- 
liness of  nature,  that  made  everybody  love  him  tenderly, 
enthusiastically,  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  know  him. 
No  bitter  word  ever  escaped  his  lips  or  flowed  from  his  pen 
against  any  opponent.  He  was  generous  and  charitable 
almost  to  a  fault.  His  heart  was  a  noble  vessel,  brimful  of 
the  milk  of  human  kindness ;  the  slightest  touch  of  pity 
caused  it  to  overflow. 

With  all  his  gentleness  there  was  combined  an  iron 
will,  an  unyielding  tenacity  of  purpose,  an  untiring  energy, 
working  without  rest  and  toward  a  fixed  end.  He  was  a 
ruler  of  men  by  the  power  of  a  steadfast  will,  by  the  might 
of  a  vigorous  intellect  and  the  magnetism  of  his  pure  char- 
acter. He  was  a  brave  man  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
word.  A  certain  man  in  this  city  who  belonged  to  the 
same  Confederate  regiment  in  which  Broadus  served  as 
chaplain,  a  few  days  ago  said  in  a  voice  trembling  and 
almost  hushed  in  emotion:  "That  pale  and  delicate 
preacher  on  numberless  occasions  exposed  himself  to  mor- 
tal danger  while  attending  to  his  office  of  mercy.  He  could 
be  seen  moving  calmly  where  the  bullets'were  flying  about 
thick  and  fast,  bringing  physical  relief  and  spiritual  com- 
fort to  the  wounded." 

Great  as  he  was  in  many  things,  he  yet  appeared  great- 
est in  the  pulpit.  There  his  rare  powers  of  mind,  heart, 


293 

imaginatiou,  and  will  blended  in  perfect  harmony  and  acted 
with  concentrated  energy.  The  clearest  light  of  logical 
reasoning  was  combined  in  his  sermons  with  the  kindling 
force  of  ardent  emotion ;  sublime  thoughts  expressed  them- 
selves in  language  comprehensible  to  a  child.  The  most 
stirring  pathos,  the  blaze  of  proud  faith  went  hand  in  hand 
with  the  most  lucid  exposition  and  a  marvelous  freshness 
and  variety  of  illustration.  There  was  music,  there  was  a 
soul-bewitching  persuasive  sweetness  in  his  voice.  There 
was  a  certain  indescribable  tone  in  his  voice  which  touched 
the  chords  of  the  heart  and  carried  conviction.  There 
were  at  times  melting  tears  in  his  voice,  while  the  eye  of 
the  speaker  was  dry.  While  he  swept  the  audience  as  by 
an  irresistible  torrent,  he  never  lost  control  of  himself.  As 
much  as  he  gave,  you  felt  that  there  was  still  a  reserved 
force  behind.  As  you  looked  up  into  that  noble,  spiritual 
face,  you  could  not  help  thinking  that  an  ancient  prophet 
was  standing  before  you  delivering  a  message  received 
from  on  high.  He  was,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  the  greatest 
preachers  of  all  times.  Will  I  ever  hear  and  see  the  like 
of  him  again? 

Methinks  his  place  will  not  be  filled  in  this  city  and  in 
the  South  in  our  lifetime.  What  a  grievous  and  irrepara- 
ble loss  his  death  is !  Well  has  it  been  said  by  his  eloquent 
friend,  Professor  Whitsitt:  "Broadus  ought  to  have  lived  a 
thousand  years."  Somebody  remarked  to  me  a  few  days 
ago:  "Why  should  Broadus  be  dead,  whose  life  was  a  gen- 
eral blessing,  while  thousands  of  vile  men  are  enjoying 
life?"  I  answered  him  in  the  words  of  the  Talmud:  "The 
wicked  are  dead  while  they  are  alive,  the  righteous  live 
most  truly  after  their  death."  The  life  of  Broadus  was 
worth  the  lives  of  a  hundred  thousand  common  men.  His 
memory  will  be  even  a  greater  blessing  than  his  life  was. 
Men  like  Broadus  never  die,  and  the  grave  of  their  true 
self  can  be  seen  nowhere. 

Farewell,  wisest  and  sweetest  soul !  My  love  of  thee 
was  passing  the  love  of  woman.  Pardon  this  tribute  paid 


294 

by  an  inferior  mind  to  thy  greatness  !  Suffer  me  to  link 
for  a  brief  moment  my  obscure  name  to  thy  immortal 
memory.  May  all  the  inhabitants  of  Louisville  shine  for 
a  day  with  the  light  reflected  from  thee !  Let  men  rise  and 
call  our  city  blessed,  because  Broadus  has  in  her  midst 
done  the  best  part  of  his  life-work!  Many  sins  shall  be 
forgiven  Louisville,  because  she  has  for  years  harbored, 
loved,  and  revered  Broadus,  the  servant  of  God.  His  life 
and  his  death  will  plead  for  her,  and  stay  the  hand  of  retri- 
bution till  she  consider,  repent,  and  learn  to  walk  in  the 
ways  of  John  A.  Broadus. 


ISAAC  MAYER  WISE. 


ADDRESS  OF  CONGRATULATION.* 


TDELOVED  Master,  Dear  Friend,  Rabbi  Isaac  M.  Wise, 

1) 

"*^  in   the  name  of  the   Rabbis  here  assembled,   in   the 

name  of  all  the  members  of  the  Rabbinical  Conference  of 
America,  founded  by  you,  presided  over  and  wisely  guided 
by  you  for  ten  years,  in  the  name  of  this  large  audience 
which  is  truly  representative  of  American  Israel,  I  congrat- 
ulate you  upon  the  completion  of  the  eightieth  year  of 
your  life,  and  above  all  upon  the  manifold,  fruitful,  and 
noble  work  done  by  you  during  the  days  of  your  long  and 
ever  upward  pilgrimage.  All  who  know  you — and  to 
know  you  is  to  love  you — all  who  have  been  inspired  by 
your  example,  all  whom  your  thoughtful  yet  fervid  elo- 
quence has  edified,  all  whom  your  teachings  have  made 
better  and  wiser,  all  who  have  derived  knowledge  and 
guidance  from  your  writings,  the  vast  number  of  men  and 
women  throughout  our  broad  land  who  have  directly  and 
indirectly  feH  the  uplifting  influence  of  your  personality 
and  activity,  rise  on  this  great  day  and  call  you  blessed,  all 
praise  you,  saying:  Many  have  done  valiantly,  but  thou 
excellest  them  all !  Deceitful  are  the  triumphs  of  selfish 
ambition,  vain  is  the  glory  of  mere  learning,  vain  the 
pride  of  high-sounding  oratory.  But  the  man  who  has 
given  all  his  powers  to  the  general  good  shall  be  praised. 
The  man  who  has  walked  in  humility  and  uprightness 


*  Spoken  at  the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  at  Cincin- 
nati, Nissan  3,  5659  (March  14,  1899),  at  the  celebration  of  the  eightieth 
anniversary  of  Dr.  Wise's  birthday. 


296 

with  God  shall  be  exalted.  We  say  of  this  righteous  man, 
on  this  his  eightieth  birthday:  It  is  well  with  him,  for  he 
eateth  of  the  fruits  of  his  labors.  He  has  scattered  bless- 
ings, he  has  been  as  a  father  to  the  poor  and  needy,  he  has 
sown  light  for  Israelites  and  Gentiles.  His  name  and  his 
work  shall  endure  forever. 

This  is  indeed  a  week  of  rejoicing  and  thanksgiving 
not  only  to  the  venerable  sage  himself  and  to  his  immedi- 
ate family,  not  only  to  his  disciples  and  friends,  but  to  all 
those  who  are  ever  looking  out  for  manifestations  of  divine 
goodness  and  signs  of  divine  guidance  in  the  lives  of  indi- 
viduals and  nations.  Consider  his  marvelous  physical 
vitality,  unabated  even  to  this  day,  note  the  vigor  and 
elasticity  of  his  mind  even  at  this  late  season  of  his  life, 
mark  his  abounding  energy  equal  to  all  conditions  and 
demands,  contemplate  the  long  and  blessed  result  of  his 
career!  You  can  not  help  realizing  that  the  Soul  of  Exist- 
ence as  manifested  in  the  life  of  Isaac  M.  Wise,  is  benefi- 
cent order  and  compensating  grace,  you  are  bound  to  con- 
clude that  the  divine  Power  which  makes  for  progressive 
development  in  nature  and  for  righteousness  in  the  secular 
life  of  mankind,  is  behind  those  who  with  an  indomitable 
will  and  a  clear  purpose  strive  to  co-operate  with  the  plans 
of  Providence.  The  lives  of  persons  such  as  Isaac  M.  Wise 
justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man.  The  lives  of  most  men 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  lot  of  man  is  weakness,  misery, 
and  failure.  They  are  like  the  shadow  of  a  dream.  They 
are  carried  away  as  with  a  flood.  They  seem  to  be  con- 
sumed as  in  a  quenchless  anger  divine  and  troubled  by 
Nature's  unappeasable  wrath.  They  spend  their  days  like 
a  sad  tale  that  is  told.  The  days  of  but  a  few  men  are 
three  score  years  and  ten  and  the  gain  thereof  is  weariness 
and  sorrow.  Age  brings  decay  to  all  their  faculties.  All 
things  become  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable  to  them.  The 
pleasures  they  had  lived  for,  abandon  them.  Disappoint- 
ment sits  brooding  over  their  soul.  They  come  to  feel  that 


297 

human  existence  is  but  vanity  and  illusion,  that  man  is  the 
helpless  victim  of  envious  and  pitiless  powers. 

But  the  wholesome,  rich,  and  joyous  life  of  this  Grand 
Old  Man,  his  ceaseless  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual 
growth,  his  bearing  precious  fruit  even  in  high  old  age, 
confute  the  gloomy  view  of  human  existence,  which  we 
are  inclined  to  hold  on  observing  the  average  life  of  human- 
ity. Men  like  Isaac  M.  Wise  show  that  God  who  made 
man  rejoices  in  him,  and  is  just  and  kind  to  him  in  all  his 
ways.  This  mortal,  whose  eye  is  not  dim  nor  his  natural 
force  abated  at  eighty,  who  is  physically  and  mentally  still 
full  of  sap  and  green,  is  a  living  proof  that  there  is  no 
unrighteousness  in  the  Rock  of  Ages,  that  He  is  forever 
making  for  strength  and  victory  and  gladness  in  the  realms 
of  nature,  and  above  all  in  man,  the  crown  of  all  creation. 
We  hail  our  teacher  as  a  witness  to  the  lovingkindness  of 
the  God  of  Nature.  We  reverence  him  as  a  typical  man 
such  as  the  creative  Love  divine  intends  man  to  be.  We 
rejoice  in  his  individual  life  because  we  believe  it  fore- 
shadows the  life  of  the  coming  man.  We  rise  from  the 
contemplation  of  this  particular  man  to  ideal  conclusions 
regarding  man  in  general.  This  glorious  birthday,  promis- 
ing many  more  like  birthdays,  seems  to  foretell  the  latter 
days,  when  the  average  life  of  man  will  be  eighty  or  ninety 
years,  when  wisdom  will  guide  the  steps  of  every  mortal 
in  the  ways  of  God,  and  the  old  age  of  every  man  will 
bring  home  a  rich  harvest  prepared  by  his  youth  and  man- 
hood, a  harvest  rich  in  noble  results  and  honors,  such  as  we 
are  celebrating  to-day. 

What  is  the  secret  of  this  man's  immense  spiritual 
power  and  moral  influence?  What  is  the  ultimate  cause 
of  this  man's  triumphant  career?  What  has  enabled  him 
to  bear  so  many  burdens  and  perform  truly  herculean 
tasks?  My  answer  is:  His  character  and  his  achievements 
find  their  explanation  in  the  fact  that  he  has  from  the  days 
of  his  youth  to  this,  the  crowning  hour  of  his  life  striven 


298 

with  all  his  powers  to  be  a  witness  of  the  one  only  God, 
the  living  God  of  justice  and  mercy,  the  God  of  holiness 
and  truth.  It  has  been  with  him  a  life-long  instinct  and  a 
passion  to  be  the  champion  of  the  universal  faith  and  the 
sublime  ethics  of  Israel.  Indissolubly  interwoven  with 
the  very  constitution  of  his  mind  is  the  belief  that  the 
religion  revealed  by  God  through  the  seers  and  lawgivers 
of  Israel  is  the  fountain-head  of  all  true  religion,  the  pri- 
mal and  perennial  source  of  all  humanity.  He  has  ever 
firmly  believed  in  the  deathless  mission  of  Israel  unto  all 
the  families  of  the  earth,  he  has  ever  held  that  justice  and 
equity  can  prevail  only  where  the  eternal  principles  of  the 
Mosaic  moral  and  social  laws  are  fully  acknowledged  and 
carried  into  execution  according  to  the  varying  conditions 
of  the  times.  His  love  of  Judaism  has  been  the  great  and 
holy  passion  of  his  life.  This  love  is  with  him  synony- 
mous with  the  love  of  God,  with  the  love  of  humanity,  and 
of  reason.  In  his  mind  there  has  never  been  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  that  the  triumph  of  Israel's  religion  would  be 
the  triumph  of  reason  against  superstition,  of  light  against 
darkness.  In  his  heart  of  hearts  he  has  always  borne  the 
conviction,  that  the  realization  of  the  moral  ideas  and  ideals 
of  Judaism  would  bring  on  the  reign  of  righteousness, 
of  peace,  and  of  human  brotherhood.  Our  religion  has 
never  been  a  lip-deep  profession  with  him.  It  has  been 
and  is  the  very  life  of  his  mind  and  heart.  It  has  informed 
his  thoughts,  shaped  his  character,  and  determined  the 
whole  course  of  his  life's  activity. 

Smitten  with  the  passion  for  the  truths  and  the  mission 
of  Judaism,  he  has  been  exceedingly  zealous  for  the  cause 
of  Israel,  which  he  justly  holds  to  be  identical  with  the 
cause  of  God  and  humanity.  His  heart  burned  within 
him  when  he  saw  Judaism  fettered  by  innumerable  cere- 
monial ties,  weighted  down  by  the  yoke  of  medieval 
orthodoxy,  disguised  by  an  outlandish  garb,  disfigured  by 
unnatural  excrescence.  To  reform  Judaism  in  the  spirit 


299 

of  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  their  true  successors,  to 
regenerate  it  in  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  might,  to  make 
it  again  the  living  heart  of  Israel,  to  make  it  a  great  moral 
and  spiritual  world-power,  has  been  the  central  and  all- 
determining  purpose  of  his  whole  life.  You  can  not  truly 
read  the  meaning  of  Dr.  Wise's  career,  you  can  not  compre- 
hend the  movements  of  his  mind,  nor  understand  his  varied 
and  restless  activities,  unless  you  view  them  in  the  light  of 
his  high  ideal. 

He  made  himself  a  voluntary  exile  from  his  country, 
his  birthplace,  and  father's  house,  because  he  was  con- 
vinced that  a  thorough-going  reform  of  Judaism  was  not 
possible  under  the  hardened  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
Old  World.  His  prophetic  soul  told  him  that  in  the  New 
World  there  would  be  found  free  scope  and  favorable  sur- 
roundings for  a  Judaism  purged  of  its  dross,  a  Judaism 
adjusted  to  the  conditions  and  requirements  of  modern 
civilization,  and  fitted  to  open  a  new  era  of  moral  and 
religious  life  to  Israel,  and  to  bring  light  to  the  nations. 
Fifty-three  years  ago  he  landed  on  the  shores  of  America. 
And  from  that  hour  to  this  day  he  has  lived  and  toiled, 
battled  and  suffered  and  conquered  for  that  ideal.  Not  for 
one  moment  during  all  those  years  did  he  become  faithless 
to  the  central  purpose  of  his  life.  Not  for  one  moment 
did  he  doubt  that  God  was  with  him,  and  was  helping  him 
in  his  arduous  work. 

This  intense  enthusiasm  for  one  great  ideal  has  given 
his  life  that  unity  of  purpose,  imparted  to  his  character 
that  strength  and  consistency,  and  endowed  him  with  that 
marvelous  capacity  for  work,  which  have  made  him  the 
greatest  force  in  American  Israel,  and  the  greatest  reformer 
of  his  time  and  generation.  All  his  native  powers — an 
indomitable  will,  a  vigorous,  keen  intelligence,  wonderful 
nerve  force,  clear  and  straight  vision — all  were  taken  into 
service  by  his  great  ideal  and  directed  with  concentrated 
energy  towards  a  fixed  goal.  He  always  knew  what  he 


300 

wanted,  because  he  always  knew  the  requirements  of  the 
times  and  the  demands  of  the  cause  for  which  he  lived. 
He  invariably  recognized  the  right  means  which  would 
lead  to  the  purposive  ends.  Though  working  for  one  eter- 
nal ideal,  he  never  was  an  unpractical  dreamer.  He  always 
had  an  eye  for  the  realities  of  things,  and  sound  judgment 
to  distinguish  between  the  possible  and  the  impossible. 
Because  he  wanted  little  or  nothing  for  himself  and  every- 
thing for  Judaism,  because  he  did  not  work  for  his  own 
glory,  but  for  the  glory  of  God  and  humanity,  he  was 
always  fearless  in  thought  and  act.  His  ideal  and  his  faith 
in  God  inspired  him  with  dauntless  courage,  so  that  he 
ever  looked  with  an  unflinching  eye  on  conditions  and 
men,  on  things  old  and  new,  on  friends  and  foes.  With 
unfaltering  steps  he  walked  toward  his  goal,  far  or  near, 
and  rejoiced  in  overcoming  the  innumerable  obstacles 
which  he  met  in  his  way.  For  his  is  essentially  a  militant 
energy.  Isaac  M.  Wise  always  loved  a  good  fight  in  the 
service  of  a  good  cause.  But  he  never  did  anything  in 
malice  or  in  hate,  but  in  honor.  Battle  and  victory  and 
rule  were  never  regarded  by  him  as  ends  in  themselves,  but 
as  means  to  a  high  end.  And  that  end  was,  to  help  estab- 
lish justice  on  earth,  to  give  victory  and  glory  to  the  faith 
and  moral  ideals  of  Israel. 

One  after  another  he  determined  upon  the  means  to 
serve  the  central  purpose  of  his  life.  He  early  recognized 
that  preaching  in  English,  the  language  of  the  country, 
that  preaching  every  Sabbath  and  holiday,  and  on  all 
opportune  occasions  and  in  all  possible  places,  was  the  first 
prerequisite  for  bringing  the  truth  of  God  home  to  the 
hearts  of  the  Israelites,  and  for  making  Judaism  a  moral 
and  religious  power  in  the  national  life  of  America.  For 
over  fifty  years  he  has  made  his  preaching  a  means  of  incal- 
culable good  to  all  American  Israel,  and  to  the  country  at 
large.  There  is  not  a  region  in  our  broad  land  where  his 
inspiring  voice  has  not  again  and  again  been  heard.  Every- 


301 

where  his  sermons  have  kindled  enthusiasm  in  the  soul  of 
his  co-religionists  for  the  law  of  God  and  for  Israel's  glori- 
ous historic  calling.  Everywhere  his  word  has  been  like  a 
hammer  breaking  ancient  prejudices.  Everywhere  his  mes- 
sage turned  the  heart  of  the  Gentile  towards  the  Jew,  and 
the  heart  of  the  Jew  toward  the  Gentile.  That  anti- 
Semitism  does  not  exist  in  this  country;  that  Jew-hating 
and  Jew-baiting  are  an  impossibility  in  our  America ;  that 
Judaism  is  universally  respected  and  regarded  by  many 
enlightened  Gentiles  as  co-equal  with  Christianity ;  that  our 
temples  are  more  and  more  becoming  houses  of  prayer  for 
all  nations,  is  in  a  large  measure  due  to  the  far-spreading 
influence  exerted  during  a  half  a  century  by  Dr.  Wise's 
preaching  and  writings.  Upon  this  grand  achievement  we 
congratulate  you  today,  saying:  You  have  wrestled  with 
darkness,  with  indifference  and  enmity,  and  have  prevailed 
by  the  might  of  your  word. 

The  deep  and  lasting  effect  of  his  preaching  is  not 
due  to  any  tricks  and  artifices  of  oratory.  His  has  been 
and  is  the  eloquence  of  a  powerful  personality,  the 
eloquence  of  unshakable  conviction,  the  eloquence  of 
reason  alive  with  passion,  the  eloquence  of  ideas  irre- 
sistible in  logic  but  charged  with  emotion.  The  fruit 
of  that  eloquence  of  character,  of  knowledge,  of  life-long 
enthusiasm,  for  the  moral  and  religious  ideals  of  Isreal,  is 
the  condition  of  Judaism  in  Cincinnati.  It  may  be  said 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  Cincinnati  has  been  for 
years,  and  still  is,  the  center  of  American  Israel.  The 
right  man  and  the  right  conditions  met  in  this  city,  and  the 
outcome  of  their  harmonious  co-operation,  their  mutual 
actions  and  re-actions,  during  wellnigh  half  a  century,  has 
been  a  blessing  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Cincinnati,  the 
Jews  first  and  next  the  Gentiles;  a  blessing  to  all  Ameri- 
can Israel,  a  blessing  to  Judaism  in  the  Old  World.  Here 
he  found  the  men,  who,  as  members  of  congregations  or  as 
colleagues,  entered  with  eager  sympathy  into  his  intentions, 


302 

lent  him  the  influence  of  their  characters,  of  their  posi- 
tions, of  their  wealth  or  learning,  and  enabled  him  to 
advance  step  by  step  towards  the  realization  of  his  far- 
reaching  plans.  Many  of  his  fellow-workers  have  gone  to 
their  reward,  and  at  this  hour  he  remembers  them  with 
mingled  feelings  of  gratitude  and  love  and  sorrow,  but 
many  more  are,  thank  God,  still  with  him,  celebrating  him- 
self and  themselves  in  him,  in  his  work  and  honor.  And 
with  them  are  their  children.  A  new  generation  has  risen 
with  their  fathers  and  mothers  who  know  Isaac  M.  Wise 
and  his  works.  They  are  filled  with  his  spirit,  and  are 
resolved  to  keep  his  name  and  his  work  alive  and  transmit 
them  as  a  precious  legacy  to  their  children  and  children's 
children.  This  man  deserves  to  live  in  your  heart,  and  to 
shine  transfigured  in  your  mind,  as  the  typical  teacher  and 
guide  of  American  Israel.  For  he  not  only  preached  the 
gospel  of  the  one  only  God  of  humanity,  he  not  only 
inspired  himself  and  others  with  the  grand  ideals  of  the 
prophets,  but  he  has  also  wrought  with  all  his  might  for 
their  realization.  One  by  one  he  had  to  fashion  the  instru- 
ments with  which  to  do  his  self-imposed  work.  He  had 
to  prepare  the  means  and  measures  wherewith  to  compass 
his  high  ends.  He  felt  called  to  satisfy  the  wants  which 
his  own  bold  spirit  of  reform  had  created. 

Judaism  in  America  required  a  reform  prayer-book 
which  should  respond  to  the  ideas  of  American  Israel, 
eliminating  dead  hopes  and  exploded  national  issues,  mak- 
ing room  for  new  aspirations,  giving  expression  not  to 
lamentations  over  vanished  glories,  but  to  joy  and  gratitude 
for  deliverance  wrought  in  our  own  day.  Still  such  a 
prayer-book  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  So  he  set  to  work, 
and  after  years  of  toil  and  labor,  he  brought  out  the  "Min- 
hag  America,"  which  was  adopted  by  most  reformed  con- 
gregations, and  which  for  many  years  served  as  the  com- 
mon ground  for  their  religious  solidarity,  and  as  a  sign  of 
their  spiritual  union. 


3°3 

He  recognized  the  need  of  a  weekly  journal,  to  represent 
reform  Judaism  in  America  and  abroad.  Under  innumer- 
able difficulties  which  would  have  made  a  less  sturdy  heart 
give  up  the  attempt  in  despair,  he  succeeded  in  establish- 
ing the  American  Israelite  and  the  Deborah,  as  consistent 
organs  of  progressive  Judaism.  In  them  is  stored  up  the 
history  of  Isaac  M.  Wise's  growing  and  expanding  charac- 
ter and  mind,  the  history  of  his  high-aspiring  ideals,  of  his 
struggles  and  achievements.  In  them  the  future  historian 
will  find  the  ample  records  of  American  Israel  during 
almost  half-a-century,  the  records  of  its  inward  and  out- 
ward evolution.  From  them  he  will  trace  the  gradual  devel- 
opment of  Judaism  in  America  from  an  insignificant  for- 
eign plant,  until  it  became  a  mighty,  far-spreading  tree  of 
life  of  indigenous  growth.  From  them  the  future  biogra- 
pher of  Dr.  Wise  will  be  able  to  reconstruct  his  life-work, 
discern  the  innermost  meanings  of  his  various  movements, 
and  lay  bare  in  the  character  of  the  man  the  cause  of  the 
tremendous  influence  exercised  by  him  on  his  time  and 
generation.  He  will  be  able  to  show  that  among  other 
qualities  of  true  genius,  Dr.  Wise  possessed  the  capacity 
for  taking  infinite  pains  in  doing  thoroughly  and  in  due 
season  the  many  arduous  tasks  required  by  the  ideal  to 
which  he  had  consecrated  his  life  and  all  his  powers.  He 
will  be  in  a  position  to  prove  that  our  Master  pursued  a 
constructive  plan  for  building  up  theoretically  and  practi- 
cally Reform  Judaism  on  the  free  soil  of  America.  He 
laid  the  foundations  broad  and  deep,  and  went  on  erecting 
with  incessant  labor  one  part  after  another  of  the  super- 
structure. 

American  Israel  needed  a  catechism  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  the  young.  Wise  produced  one,  which  is 
really  a  systematic  treatise  on  Judaism,  embodying  in  pop- 
ular form  the  cardinal  beliefs  and  the  imperishable  moral 
ideas  and  laws  of  Israel's  religion  of  humanity.  It  stands 
unsurpassed  among  the  catechisms  which  have  appeared  in 


304 

this  country  and  elsewhere.  It  is  a  clear  and  fearless 
expression  of  the  universal  religion  of  the  prophets,  free 
from  narrow  tribalism,  free  from  Jewish  national  chauvin- 
ism and  the  pagan  pride  of  blood.  It  breathes  the  pride 
of  Messianic  hope  and  brotherhood  for  all  the  families  of 
the  earth. 

American  Israel  needed  a  history  of  Israel.  Dr.  Wise 
wrote  a  brilliant  history  of  the  First  Commonwealth,  which 
unfortunately  has  long  been  out  of  print.  He  gave  years 
of  most  painstaking  research  and  arduous  labor  to  the 
composition  of  the  history  of  the  Second  Commonwealth. 
Neither  envious  silence  nor  hostile  criticism  will  ever  be 
able  to  commit  that  work  to  oblivion.  It  will  forever  be  a 
monument  to  his  learning,  to  his  tireless  energy,  his  liter- 
ary ability,  and  his  all-absorbing  love  for  the  science  of 
Judaism. 

He  has  given  us  a  systematic  treatise  on  the  theology 
of  Judaism,  a  treatise  profound,  lucid,  strong  in  logical  rea- 
soning. In  another  splendid  work  he  has  brought  into 
clear  view  the  relations  subsisting  between  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  showing  their  agreements  and  disagreements, 
defining  their  boundaries,  giving  unstinted  praise  and 
honor  to  the  daughter  religion,  yet  making  good  the  claim 
of  the  mother  church  to  eternal  life  and  a  universal 
mission. 

His  ideal  of  a  rejuvenated  Judaism,  resting  on  reason 
and  lit  up  by  revelation,  compelled  him,  as  it  were,  to 
write  his  "Cosmic  God."  There  is  great  profundity  and 
originality  of  thought  in  it,  and  astounding  cogency  of 
reasoning  and  a  vast  array  of  learning.  The  purpose  of  the 
great  argument  is  to  show,  that  the  well-ascertained  and 
co-ordinated  facts  of  nature  and  the  fundamental  concepts 
of  science,  as  well  as  the  cardinal  ideas  of  metaphysics,  lead 
up  to  the  supreme  truth  of  all,  to-wit:  to  the  belief  in  an 
all-creative,  self-conscious  Cause,  in  an  all-embracing,  all- 
unfolding  spiritual  Power — the  eternal  essence  and  parent 


305 

source  both  of  nature  and  of  man.  That  work  was  a  great 
step  in  his  intellectual  and  religious  pilgrim's  progress, 
which  he  invited  us  to  make  with  him. 

Admirable  and  rich  in  noble  fruitage  as  are  his  theoret- 
ical and  literary  works,  more  important  still  are  his  practi- 
cal achievements  for  the  growth  and  honor  of  American 
Israel.  The  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations, 
the  Hebrew  Union  College,  and  the  Central  Conference 
of  American  Rabbis,  are  the  three  creations  by  which 
he  will  mainly  live.  The  union  of  all  reform  congrega- 
tions in  our  land  has  been  the  dream  of  his  life.  Attempt 
after  attempt  was  made  and  failed.  But  in  the  fullness  of 
time,  some  twenty-five  years  ago,  with  the  aid  of  valiant 
men  and  true,  he  succeeded  in  establishing  a  Union,  which 
has  grown  from  more  to  more,  until  it  has  come  to  embrace 
every  progressive  religious  community  of  Israel  in  Amer- 
ica. Though  still  at  the  beginning  of  its  career,  the  Union 
has  already  accomplished  great  results.  It  contains  within 
itself  the  promise  and  potency  of  untold  good,  moral  and 
religious,  yet  to  be  achieved  in  course  of  generations.  The 
very  fact  that  over  a  hundred  congregations  know  them- 
selves to  be  members  of  a  great  spiritual  Union  is  in  itself 
a  moral  gain  of  utmost  value.  For  union  is  the  ultimate 
end  of  morality ;  peace  and  good  will  are  the  signs  of  our 
nearness  to  God,  our  common  Father,  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel.  Discord  and  disunion  are  the  deadly  fruits  of  self- 
seeking  ambition,  of  mutual  suspicions  and  jealousies,  of 
apostacy  from  God  and  humanity.  In  celebrating  Isaac 
M.  Wise  today,  we  are  celebrating  the  Union  of  American 
Congregations,  the  noble  offspring  of  his  enthusiasm  and 
sagacity.  Through  him  and  his  faithful  fellow- workers  a 
permanent  union  and  harmonious  co-operation  have  sup- 
planted sectional  discord  and  personal  strife.  Blessed  be 
the  God  of  peace  and  love,  the  Guardian  of  Israel,  who  has 
given  us  in  Isaac  M.  Wise  a  prince  of  peace  and  father  of 
union  ! 


306 

The  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  created 
by  him,  imbued  with  his  spirit,  and  guided  by  his  calm 
judgment,  crowns  the  work  of  union  in  the  camp  of  pro- 
gressive American  Israel.  We  congratulate  him  today 
upon  having  banished  the  evil  spirit  of  disunion,  suspicion, 
and  jealousy  from  among  the  Rabbis  of  this  country.  We 
congratulate  him  upon  having  united  us  into  a  true  broth- 
erhood. We  thank  him  for  having  made  us  a  band  of 
mutually-respecting  and  mutually-helpful  fellow-workers 
in  the  vineyard  of  Israel.  All  misunderstandings  have 
given  way  to  mutual  trust,  all  animosities  have  been 
quenched  by  the  love  which  we  bear  to  the  head  of  the 
Conference.  We  have  come  here  to  honor  ourselves  by 
honoring  him.  We  are  assembled  here  today  to  pay  hom- 
age to  him  as  the  typical  American  Rabbi.  We  wish  the 
possibilities  and  aspirations  of  the  American  Rabbi  to  be 
judged  by  his  ideals  and  achievements.  For  his  ideals  are 
our  ideals  and  upon  his  works  we  shall  strive  to  pattern 
our  own.  His  spirit  will  live  in  and  act  through  the  Cen- 
tral Conference  of  American  Rabbis  long  after  his  career 
on  earth  shall  have  come  to  a  close.  Whenever  and 
wherever  the  Conference  will  meet  in  coming  days,  his 
name  will  be  mentioned  for  a  blessing.  The  permanency 
of  this  organization  is  secured  not  only  by  the  character 
which  his  mind  has  stamped  upon  it,  but  also  by  the  fact 
that  a  majority  of  its  members  are  his  disciples  and  that 
their  number  will  increase  from  year  to  year. 

The  Hebrew  Union  College  is  the  greatest  creation  of 
his  idealism  and  of  his  practical  genius.  By  it  he  has 
become  the  Rabban  Johanan  ben  Zakkai  of  America.  He 
has  planted  it  as  a  tree  of  life  and  knowledge  in  the  house 
of  God ;  it  shall  flourish  forever  in  the  courts  of  Judaism. 
It  shall  rise  like  a  palm  tree  on  the  mountain  of  Yahve, 
and  grow  up  like  a  cedar  on  the  spiritual  Lebanon  of 
American  Israel.  By  this  institution,  if  by  no  other  work 
of  his,  he  has  gained  his  immortality.  By  this  institution  he 


307 

will  live  as  a  creative  spiritual  force  in  the  growing  life  of 
American  Israel.  The  College  is  the  most  perfect  and  pre- 
cious fruit  of  his  life.  By  it  he  has  linked  his  own  indi- 
vidual existence  to  the  universal  and  eternal  existence  of 
spiritual  Israel.  In  fact,  it  is  dearer  to  him  than  all  things 
else  that  he  has  accomplished.  Were  an  angel  from  heaven 
to  appear  to  him  and  say:  "All  your  work  save  one  shall 
perish;  the  choice  lies  with  you.  Which  do  you  choose?" 
He  would  without  a  moment's  hesitation  answer:  "Let 
the  Hebrew  Union  College  live  and  grow,  though  all 
things  else,  willed  and  worked  for  by  me,  should  dwindle 
into  nothingness!"  He  would  readily  consent  to  let  his 
own  name  sink  into  utter  forgetfulness,  if  thereby  he  could 
further  the  cause  for  which  he  has  lived  and  labored  and 
suffered.  Not  for  his  glory,  nor  for  the  greatness  of  his 
house  has  he  toiled  incessantly  for  over  half-a-century,  but 
for  the  glory  of  God,  for  the  mission  of  Israel,  and  the  pro- 
gress of  humanity. 

For  he  is  an  Israelite  to  the  very  core  of  his  being.  He 
is  like  one  of  the  ancient  leaders  of  Israel  come  to  life 
again.  He  is  a  Hebrew  of  Hebrews  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  word.  He  has  the  stubbornness  of  will,  the  tenacity  of 
purpose,  the  unyielding  endurance  of  a  genuine  son  of 
Israel,  who  may  at  times  bend  but  never  breaks.  He  has 
the  intellectual  vivacity,  the  keen  penetration,  and  the  love 
of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  which  are  characteristic 
qualities  of  the  superior  Jew.  But  he  has  also  the  tender- 
ness of  heart,  the  mercifulness  and  the  strong  family  affec- 
tions, by  which  the  true  Israelite  is  distinguished.  Infinite 
pity  for  the  poor  and  needy  and  the  disinherited  of  the 
earth,  quenchless  hatred  of  tyranny  and  tyrants,  fierce 
anger  against  the  wicked,  who  disguise  their  lying  spirit, 
their  envy  and  low  passions  as  patriotism  and  religion,  an 
ardent  faith  in  the  God  of  righteousness — these  attributes 
of  the  soul  of  Israel  have  been  the  sleepless  forces  of  his 
character  and  the  impelling  motive  of  his  conduct.  Ana- 


308 

lyze  his  character,  scrutinize  his  life,  and  you  will  find  that 
he  has  ever  been  a  loyal  man — loyal  to  God,  loyal  to  Israel, 
loyal  to  his  beloved  America,  loyal  to  his  family,  loyal  to 
his  friends,  loyal  at  all  times  to  his  convictions.  He  has 
always  stood  on  his  convictions  as  on  an  immovable  rock. 
He  was  never  overawed  by  popular  outcries,  nor  swerved 
from  his  position  by  the  assaults  of  fanaticism.  The  waves 
of  orthodox  reaction,  which  of  late  years,  in  consequence 
of  anti-Semitism,  have  risen  in  Germany  and  flowed  over 
to  our  own  shore,  have  not  been  able  to  tear  him  from  the 
moorings  of  Reform  Judaism.  The  madness  of  Zionism, 
the  most  deplorable  effect  of  vile  anti-Semitism,  has  met 
in  him  an  uncompromising  antagonist,  convinced  as  he  is, 
that  it  is  utterly  opposed  to  the  spiritual  and  universal  mis- 
sion of  Judaism.  Mysticism  of  every  kind,  whether  the 
romanticism  of  neo-orthodoxy  or  the  wild  day-dreams  of 
the  Zionists,  is  abhorrent  to  his  light-loving  soul.  For  half 
a  century  and  upward  he  has  been  standing  on  the  watch- 
tower  of  time,  warning  his  co-religionists  against  the 
dangers  of  materialism  and  of  letter-worship,  warning  men 
of  all  denominations  against  making  love  to  darkness  and 
superstition,  warning  the  people  of  America  against  calling 
evil  good  and  folly  wisdom.  Oh,  may  he  stand  on  that 
watch-tower  for  many  more  years  to  come — the  guardian  of 
our  highest  interests,  the  type  of  the  true  Israelite,  the 
noble  representative  of  American  manhood  and  patriotism ! 


FILIAL  PIETY. 


love  and  reverence  for  parents  partakes  of  the  nature 
of  religion.  Filial  piety  and  the  fear  of  God  spring 
from  one  and  the  same  root.  "He  that  feareth  the  Lord 
will  honor  his  father."  We  adore  God  as  the  fountain  of 
infinite  existence  from  which  our  own  life  has  flowed.  It 
is  the  mystery  of  existence  surrounding  us  on  all  sides  to 
which  our  soul  bends  in  speechless  worship.  Our  whole 
being  is  overwhelmed  with  awe  as  we  stand  in  the  pres- 
ence of  this  all-embracing  infinitude  and  eternity  of  which 
we  know  ourselves  to  be  a  part.  We  are  drawn  by  love 
and  yearning  toward  the  nameless  Being  that  is  the  parent 
of  the  heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath,  the  parent  also 
of  our  own  self.  Impenetrable  is  the  veil  which  enfolds 
all  things,  inscrutable  their  whence  and  whither.  From 
what  seeds  did  matter  sprout  and  blossom  forth?  From 
what  central  fire  was  the  spark  of  life  taken  and  blown  into 
a  universal  flame?  Where  is  the  hidden  eternal  light  of 
will  and  reason  of  which  our  own  mind  is  a  beam  in  dark- 
ness? Eagerly,  anxiously  our  soul  puts  these  questions  to 
the  world-mystery,  and  answer  is  returned  by  a  still  voice 
within:  "Sink  on  thy  knees,  O  mortal,  and  in  hushed  awe 
worship  Him,  the  unseen  yet  everpresent,  whom  no  thought 
of  thine  can  grasp,  yet  whom  by  faith  thou  dost  embrace. 
In  fear  and  love  adore  Him  under  the  image  of  a  father, 
under  the  symbol  of  a  mother."  And  we  fear  and  love  our 
earthly  parents  as  the  image  and  symbol  of  our  heavenly 
Father.  For  they  link  us  as  no  other  being  does  to  the 
mystery  of  world-existence !  It  is  from  them  and  through 
them  that  we  have  received  life.  They  alone  form  the 
vital  chain  which  connects  us  body  and  soul  with  the  mul- 
titudinous life  of  the  universe.  They  stand  between  us 


3io 

and  the  infinite  divine  existence.  The  torch  of  life  pass- 
ing through  countless  ages  from  the  hand  of  one  genera- 
tion to  another  has  been  transmitted  to  our  person  through 
our  parents.  Noble  natures,  therefore,  gaze  rapt  in  won- 
der at  the  countenance  of  father  and  mother,  and  are  stirred 
by  feelings  akin  to  the  religious  emotions  which  the  con- 
templation of  the  mystery  of  existence  excites  in  them. 
"He  that  feareth  the  Lord  will  honor  his  father,  and  he 
that  is  obedient  to  the  Lord  will  be  a  comfort  to  his 
mother." 

We  adore  God  as  the  ideal  of  perfection.  We  believe 
Him  to  be  the  highest  and  holiest  of  goodness.  We  do 
not  worship  the  Infinite  because  He  is  all-powerful.  His 
omnipotence  could  arouse  in  us  only  feelings  of  craven 
fear,  and  awaken  the  anxious  desire  to  live  at  peace  with 
His  will,  lest  the  arm  of  His  dreadful  might  strike  us 
down.  But  despite  His  infinite  power  we  should  withhold 
our  love  and  reverence  from  Him,  did  He  not  reveal  Him- 
self to  the  heart  of  our  faith  as  the  realized  ideal  of  justice, 
mercy,  and  holiness,  an  ideal  which  we  mortals,  enslaved 
by  our  passions,  clogged  by  our  infirmities,  are  striving 
after  in  vain.  We  can  love  and  revere  only  those  beings 
that  we  know  to  be  adorned  with  the  attributes  of  good- 
ness. We  prostrate  ourselves  and  pour  out  the  praises  of 
ardent  devotion  before  Him  whose  perfection  is  unsearch- 
able, whose  essence  is  love  radiant  with  holiness. 

Similarly,  we  love  our  father  and  mother  as  the  noblest 
beings  we  know  of  on  earth.  They  are  venerable  to  us 
beyond  other  men  because  to  our  mind  they  are  better,  holier, 
and  purer  than  others.  All  the  virtues  seem  to  us  to  have 
incarnated  themselves  in  their  lives.  They  are  to  us  the 
types  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  the  representatives  of  the 
moral  ideals  of  humanity.  From  them  we  first  learned  to 
distinguish  between  right  and  wrong,  between  good  and  evil, 
truth  and  falsehood.  The  sweet  smile  with  which  our 
mother  nodded  approval  upon  the  child's  generous  acts  and 


words  had  in  it  a  matchless  eloquence,  that  enkindled  in 
our  breast  the  love  of  things  good,  of  things  beautiful  and 
true.  The  reproachful  frown,  the  painful  look,  wherewith 
our  father  reproved  the  child's  outbursts  of  envy,  hatred, 
and  malice,  terrified  our  conscience  like  the  angry  coun- 
tenance of  a  deity.  To  the  end  of  our  days  we  shall  not 
forget  the  words  full  of  sadness  and  love,  with  which  our 
father  and  mother  rebuked  our  idleness,  our  heedlessness, 
the  wildness  of  our  ways.  The  example  of  our  parents' 
life  has  been  and  still  is  a  moral  inspiration  to  us. 

No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  reverence  with  which 
we  regard  our  parents  is  religious  in  its  origin  and  nature. 
We  worship  God  as  the  ideal  of  perfection,  we  honor  our 
parents  as  types  of  human  excellence.  "He  that  feareth 
the  Lord,  will  honor  his  father  and  his  mother."  We  adore 
God  with  hearts  overflowing  with  gratitude  toward  the 
Giver  of  all  good.  With  a  lavish  hand  He  scatters  bless- 
ings along  our  path,  which  we  gather  as  we  pass.  The 
fountains  of  His  bounty  flow  by  day  and  night.  The  heav- 
ens rain  down  the  bread  of  life.  The  earth  brings  forth 
gifts  innumerable  to  sustain  our  body  and  gladden  our 
heart.  And  as  our  soul  rejoices  in  the  benefits  received,  it 
offers  its  thanksgiving  unto  the  Sustainer  and  Upholder  of 
all,  whose  mercy  goes  forth  to  all  His  creatures.  But  all 
the  benefits  bestowed  on  us  by  God  came  to  us  through 
the  heart  and  from  the  hand  of  our  parents.  The  bound- 
less beneficence  of  God  manifested  itself  through  our  father 
and  mother.  They  are  the  messengers,  whom  Providence 
sent  to  us,  bearing  in  their  hands  the  material  and  spiritual 
treasures,  which  His  loving  kindness  charged  them  to 
deliver  unto  us.  Our  parents  have  been  unto  us  as  it  were 
visible  gods  on  earth,  through  whose  eye  and  soul  infinite 
Love  flashed  out  upon  us  the  deep  expression  of  its  pres- 
ence and  power.  Our  gratitude  towards  God,  if  it  be  gen- 
uine, necessarily  contains  within  itself  thankfulness  towards 
father  and  mother.  We  believe  God  to  be  absolute  love. 


312 

He  delights  in  showering  His  blessings  upon  us,  because 
He  is  love.  He  requires  no  service  at  our  hands  in  return 
for  His  countless  benefits.  But  where  in  the  whole  range 
of  creation  do  we  meet  with  such  divinely  unselfish  love 
save  in  the  heart  of  parents?  The  love  of  all  other  beings 
is  tainted  with  an  element  of  self-interest  There  is  a 
streak  of  self-seeking  in  the  love  between  husband  and  wife. 
Some  alloy  of  selfishness  is  invariably  mixed  with  the  metal 
of  friendship.  The  love  of  parents  alone  is  wholly  disin- 
terested like  that  of  our  eternal  Father.  Their  affection  is 
pure  gold  that  has  passed  through  the  crucible  seven  times. 
They  love  us  without  wishing,  without  hope,  for  any 
reward.  Parents  feel  happy  in  being  able  to  minister  to 
the  happiness  of  their  children.  Give  a  mother  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  great  sacrifice  for  her  child,  and  she  will 
bless  you  for  enabling  her  love  to  express  itself.  Show 
but  a  father  how  to  purchase  with  his  heart's  blood  the 
health  of  his  suffering  child,  how  to  deliver  the  life  of  his 
son  or  daughter  from  the  grave,  and  he  will  rejoice,  as  if 
he  had  found  the  world's  choicest  treasure.  As  far  as  the 
east  is  from  the  west,  so  far  is  parental  love  from  egotism. 
The  love  of  parents  for  their  children  is  the  holiest  mani- 
festation of  divine  love.  God's  lovingkindness  incarnates 
itself  in  the  heart  of  mothers  and  fathers. 

"He  that  feareth  the  Lord  will  therefore  honor  his 
father  and  mother."  Filial  piety  is  the  first  fruit  of  relig- 
ion ;  in  fact,  it  is  the  human  side  of  religion.  In  what  does 
filial  piety  exist?  How  does  it  act?  How  does  it  mani- 
fest its  inner  life?  Filial  piety  inspires  us  to  fear  our 
father  and  mother  almost  as  we  fear  God,  our  Heavenly 
Father.  This  is  the  only  kind  of  creature-worship,  if  I  may 
use  the  expression,  which  is  not  idolatry.  Approach  your 
father  and  mother  as  if  you  were  coming  into  the  presence 
of  the  Infinite.  Be  overwhelmed  by  a  sense  of  worshipful 
awe,  as  you  gaze  upon  their  venerable  countenances.  Let 
your  accents  be  low  and  reverential,  measure  well  and 


3*3 

weigh  your  words,  when  you  address  the  authors  of  your 
life.  The  mystery  of  universal  existence,  physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral,  is  looking  at  you  through  the  eyes,  is 
holding  converse  with  you  by  the  mouth,  of  your  father 
and  mother.  Pay  honor  in  deeds  and  words  to  your 
parents,  with  whom  you  are  bound  together  by  a  sacred 
and  indissoluble  unity,  which  is  the  living  image  and  most 
expressive  symbol  of  that  divine  unity  that  embraces  all 
worlds,  all  beings,  all  souls,  the  past,  the  present,  and  the 
future.  Our  spirit  longs  to  transcend  the  bounds  of  our 
narrow  self  by  rising  on  the  wings  of  adoration  into  com- 
munion and  union  with  the  universal  Reason.  By  render- 
ing the  homage  of  filial  piety  to  father  and  mother  we  take 
the  first  and  most  important  step  away  from  the  prison  of 
self-sufficing  and  self- worshiping  egotism  or  selfhood,  and 
come  to  stand  in  an  attitude  of  reverence  and  love  before 
those  who  are  not  ourselves  and  yet  are  at  one  with  us  by 
virtue  of  countless  vital  and  spiritual  ties. 

"He  that  feareth  the  Lord  will  honor  his  father  and  his 
mother."  If  we  regard  our  father  and  mother  as  types  of 
noble  manhood  and  womanhood,  if  their  moral  superiority 
is  their  chiefest  title  to  our  veneration,  what  follows  as  to 
the  way  filial  piety  requires  us  to  honor  them?  By  striv- 
ing after  moral  excellence,  in  order  to  be  like  them,  in 
order  to  continue  their  higher  life,  we  pay  the  most  glori- 
ous homage  to  them,  and  bestow,  as  it  were,  divine  honors 
upon  them.  The  highest  and  holiest  kind  of  worship  con- 
sists not  in  praises  and  hymns,  but  in  the  practical  adora- 
tion of  the  attribute  of  divine  goodness,  which  we  try  to 
imitate.  We  endeavor,  as  far  as  our  human  frailty  will 
permit,  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  His  holiness,  in  the  ways  of 
His  justice  and  mercy.  This  clinging  love  for  the  divine 
ideal,  this  yearning  to  pattern  our  life  upon  it,  is  the  serv- 
ice which  true  piety  renders  God.  If  the  love  we  bear 
our  parents  is  to  deserve  the  holy  name  of  piety,  of  filial 
piety,  it  must  manifest  itself  in  a  desire  to  glorify  them 


3*4 

through  our  life,  through  a  life  of  moral  beauty,  of  high- 
aspiring  endeavor,  of  ceaseless  growth  in  those  godlike 
qualities,  for  which  we  reverence  our  father  and  mother. 
The  true  and  deep  self  of  our  parents  lies  in  their  spiritual 
life,  in  their  aspiration  after  perfection.  This  is  the  crown 
and  glory  of  their  existence.  Shall  their  virtues  die  with 
them?  Or  shall  they  embody  themselves  in  us  and  live  on 
as  immortal  powers  making  for  the  world's  righteousness 
and  redemption?  Shall  their  crown  of  wisdom  and  scep- 
ter of  moral  sovereignty  be  hidden  away  with  them  in 
their  graves?  Let  us,  their  rightful  spiritual  heirs,  wear 
their  crown,  and  adorn  it  from  year  to  year  with  precious 
jewels  found  by  our  .own  soul's  experience;  let  us  wield 
their  scepter,  and  continually  extend  its  dominions  by  fresh 
victories  won  by  our  will  and  reason  over  sensuous  desires 
and  impulses.  Can  you  conceive  of  a  greater  honor  to  be 
paid  to  your  parents  than  that  of  rescuing  the  highest,  the 
ideal  elements  of  their  life  from  death,  and  re-embody  and 
unfold  them  still  farther  in  your  own  growing  life?  Thus 
only  can  filial  love  realize  itself,  thus  only  can  the  feelings 
of  filial  reverence  convert  themselves  into  acts  of  highest 
homage. 

Do  you  wish,  O  sons  and  daughters,  to  render  thanks 
to  your  parents  for  the  innumerable  benefits  they  have 
bestowed  on  you?  Take  up  the  threads  of  their  life-work 
and  continue  to  weave  them  into  the  living  garment  of 
humanity.  Turn  into  a  fruitful  actuality  what  in  them 
was  but  a  noble  ambition  which  they  were  powerless  to 
realize  for  lack  of  means  and  opportunities!  What  in 
them  were  unquenchable  longings  after  the  ideals  of  cult- 
ure, shall  in  your  life  attain  their  richest  fulfilment.  Let 
them  be  blessed  and  rewarded  beyond  all  hope  and  expres- 
sion by  beholding  in  you  the  realization  of  their  soul's 
divinest  dreams.  Elevate  your  father  and  mother,  living 
or  departed,  by  elevating  yourselves.  Make  yourselves 
kings  amongst  the  children  of  your  time  by  the  grace 


divine  of  wisdom,  righteousness,  and  mercy.  Thereby  you 
shall  make  your  parents  the  progenitors  of  a  royal  spiritual 
line. 

He  that  feareth  the  Lord  will  do  service  to  his  parents 
as  to  his  masters,  and  will  help  his  father  and  mother  in 
their  age.  To  work  for  our  parents  is  not  a  sacrifice,  but  a 
privilege.  To  supply  their  wants  with  the  first  fruits  of 
our  labor  is  not  an  irksome  duty  imposed  upon  us  by 
society,  but  a  blessed  right,  which  our  heart  claims.  It  is 
not  in  reluctant  obedience  to  the  imperial  commands  of 
conscience,  but  because  our  love  "rejoices  in  it  that  we  sur- 
round the  declining  days  of  our  parents  with  the  blessings 
of  plenty.  The  heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath  sing 
with  joy  as  they  behold  us  supporting  with  our  strong  arms 
the  old  age  of  our  parents.  In  the  wide  realm  of  nature 
and  humanity  there  is  nothing  more  touching,  nothing 
more  expressive  of  the  holiest  moral  forces  in  the  soul  of 
man  than  the  sight  of  sons  and  daughters  hastening  to  the 
bedside  of  sick  parents,  watching  over  them  with  the  eye 
of  anxious  love,  and  nursing  them  with  untiring  attention 
and  devotion.  Blessed  the  son,  thrice  blessed  the  daugh- 
ter, whose  kindness  eagerly  goes  forth  day  by  day  to  do 
service  to  father  and  mother  in  things  great  or  little,  in 
deeds  and  words!  It  is  not  only  in  deeds,  but  also  in  words 
that  we  should  strive  to  give  expression  to  the  feelings  of 
love  and  veneration  which  we  cherish  for  father  and 
mother.  Many  of  us  are  bountiful  in  acts  of  devotion,  but 
miserly  in  words  of  affection  toward  our  parents.  Are  not 
words  full  of  sweet  tenderness,  are  no  slight  tokens  express- 
ive of  our  love  and  reverence  more  precious  to  parents 
than  the  richest  gifts  coldly  bestowed?  As  the  hart  pants 
after  brooks  of  water,  so  does  a  mother's  soul  thirst  after  a 
look  of  love,  an  affectionate  word  from  her  grown-up  child; 
as  the  dry  and  parched  field  waits  for  the  dew  and  rain  of 
heaven,  even  so  does  a  father's  heart  yearn  after  the  pres- 
ence of  his  son  and  hunger  after  the  loving  words  of  his 


daughter.  A  few  lines  from  a  distant  child  received  after 
weeks  and  months  of  silence,  are  hailed  by  father  and 
mother  with  tearful  joy,  as  if  they  were  a  heavenly  mes- 
sage. Shall  children  begrudge  their  parents  a  few  hours  of 
loving  converse  in  return  for  a  life-time  of  devotion,  a  few 
flowers  of  tenderness  for  the  garden  of  Eden  which  their 
love  planted  for  them? 

How  is  filial  love  rewarded?  To  this  question  the 
experience  of  mankind  returns  answer:  "Honor  thy  father 
and  mother  that  a  blessing  may  come  upon  thee,  for  the 
blessing  of  the  parents  establisheth  the  houses  of  children." 
Though  we  may  not  be  able  fully  to  explain  it,  it  is  yet  a 
fact  as  well  ascertained  as  any  fact  in  the  life  of  nature  or 
of  man  that  a  curse  consumes  the  houses  of  those  who  dis- 
honor, while  a  blessing  establishes  the  houses  of  those  who 
honor,  their  parents.  Outraged  filial  piety  is  turned  into 
a  spirit  of  vengeance.  It  takes  up  its  abode  in  the  chil- 
dren of  those  that  dishonor  their  parents.  In  the  fullness 
of  time  their  offspring  will  commend  to  their  lips  the 
ingredients  of  their  own  poisoned  chalice.  Popular  imag- 
ination and  the  fancy  of  poets  have  often  seized  upon  this 
theme,  and  in  impressive  tales  brought  its  solemn  lessons 
into  clear  view.  You  are  familiar  with  the  German  story 
of  a  married  couple  that  ill-treated  and  almost  starved  the 
old  and  decrepit  father  of  the  husband.  He  was  not 
allowed  to  sit  at  the  family  table,  but  was  confined  to  his 
corner  behind  the  stove,  where  he  was  given  the  scanty 
remnants  of  the  meal  in  a  wooden  bowl.  One  day  the 
parents  observed  their  little  son,  their  only  child,  work- 
ing away  on  a  block  of  wood.  "Dear  son,"  they  asked, 
"what  are  you  making?"  "I  am  trying  to  make,"  the  boy 
replied,  "a  wooden  bowl  from  which  you  :shall  eat  behind 
my  stove,  when  you  will  be  old."  At  these  words  their 
conscience  awoke,  and  smote  with  might  upon  the  chords 
of  their  cruel  hearts,  their  cheeks  blanched,  and  their  eyes 
filled  with  tears  of  repentance.  From  that  time  they 


3^7 

treated  their  poor  father  with  more  consideration  and  kind- 
ness. An  English  poet  has  enshrined  the  following  awful 
tale  in  beautiful  verse.  The  scene  is  a  miserable  cottage 
on  the  shore  of  the  North  Sea.  The  time  is  a  bleak 
December  night.  The  wind  is  howling,  the  rain  is  falling 
in  torrents.  Within  the  hut  are  two  men,  father  and  son. 
The  latter  of  gigantic  stature,  with  brutal  features  and 
blood-shot  eyes,  is  fiercely  cursing  his  equally  repellant- 
looking  sire.  "Out  with  thee,  useless  carrion!  Must  I 
ever  go  on  filling  thy  ravenous  throat  with  the  fruits  of  my 
labor,  while  thy  wretched  old  hands  can  do  nothing  save 
carrying  the  food  to  thy  mouth?  Out  with  thee,  toothless, 
drivelling  drone !  Thy  ancient  rotten  bones  shall  no  longer 
encumber  this  house  of  mine !  "  So  saying  he  begins  to 
drag  his  father  out  by  the  legs.  He  drags  him  from  the 
first  room  to  the  second,  from  the  second  to  the  hall,  from 
the  hall  to  the  threshold.  The  father  says  not  a  word. 
But  when  the  son  is  about  to  pull  him  across  the  threshold 
into  the  open  air,  the  father  cries  :  "My  son,  hold  on !  So 
far  but  not  further  did  I  fifty  years  ago  drag  my  father  on 
a  night  like  this."  These  awful  words  strike  upon  the  ears 
of  the  son  like  trumpet  sounds  of  the  day  of  Judgment. 
He  takes  up  his  father,  and  carries  him  back  into  the  room, 
and  places  him  in  the  chair.  All  through  the  long  winter 
night  they  sit  speechless  in  the  darkness.  The  morning 
gray  shows  to  the  son  his  father  stiff  and  cold  in  death. 
Another  writer  describes  the  following  harrowing  scene. 
A  daughter  was  quarreling  with  her  mother,  speaking  dag- 
gers to  her.  The  mother  bore  everything  meekly.  Sud- 
denly as  the  daughter  was  giving  expression  to  certain 
abusive  words,  the  mother  uttered  a  piercing  shriek,  threw 
herself  upon  the  ground,  and  tore  at  her  gray  hair.  "Woe  is 
me,"  she  cried,  "  these  are  the  very  words,  which  forty  years 
ago  I  addressed  to  my  own  poor  mother!"  Retribution 
walks  with  halting  and  slow  steps  behind  him  who  despises 
his  father  and  dishonors  his  mother,  but  at  last  she  overtakes 


him,  and  fills  him  brimful  of  misery.  His  own  mis- 
deeds and  cruel  words  incarnate  themselves  in  his  children, 
and  turn  upon  him  with  demon-fury  to  plague  him,  and 
poison  his  every  joy  and  hope.  The  peace  of  his  household 
is  destroyed.  Black  ingratitude  gnaws  at  his  vitals.  If  he  is 
rich,  his  children  wait  with  ill-concealed  impatience  for  his 
death,  in  order  to  possess  themselves  of  his  wealth.  If  he 
is  poor,  he  is  allowed  to  pine  away  in  his  old  age.  For- 
saken by  his  own  children,  he  lingers  through  his  last  ill- 
ness attended  only  by  merciful  strangers.  His  expiring 
breath  becomes  a  curse  to  his  children  and  their  descend- 
ants after  them.  After  a  few  generations  the  family  sinks 
to  the  level  of  criminals  and  paupers. 

But  the  blessing  of  the  parents  establishes  the  house  of 
the  children.  There  is  a  vitalizing  and  upbuilding  power 
in  filial  piety.  Those  families  in  which  filial  love  and  rev- 
erence are  strong  and  active  forces,  are  seen  to  be  endowed 
with  wonderful  life-powers,  intellectual  and  moral.  By  a 
divine  law  indwelling  human  society,  they  rise  from  sta- 
tion to  station  till  they  come  to  occupy  the  high  places  of 
the  earth.  Know  you  families,  once  poor,  without  learn- 
ing and  social  standing,  that  have  within  your  life-time 
exalted  and  distinguished  themselves,  so  as  to  be  an  object 
of  admiration  and  emulation  to  many?  Inquire  into  the 
hidden  causes  of  their  marvelous  growth  in  moral  energy, 
in  culture,  wealth,  and  influence  !  You  will  find  that  par- 
ents and  children  are  bound  together  in  such  families  by 
the  strongest  and  holiest  ties  of  love  and  reverence.  You 
will  observe  their  grown-up  sons  and  daughters  hanging 
upon  the  lips  of  father  and  mother,  listening  to  their  words 
of  advice  as  if  they  were  a  message  of  heaven.  You  will 
see  there  both  the  older  and  the  younger  children  clinging 
with  tenderest  affection  to  their  parents.  In  such  houses 
you  will  mark  in  the  behavior  of  the  children  toward  their 
father  and  mother  a  refinement  of  manner,  a  sweetness  of 
temper,  a  joyous  spirit  of  obedience,  that  make  you  feel  as 


3*9 

if  you  were  in  a  breathing  paradise  and  heard  humanity's 
springs  of  life  flowing  with  melodious  murmur.  Happy 
the  house  in  which  aged  parents  dwell  secure  and  happy 
under  the  shelter  of  their  children's  provident  love  and 
care!  Thrice  happy  the  house  in  which  dying  parents 
bless  their  sons  and  daughters,  saying,  "  May  your  children 
be  like  you,  may  they  be  as  faithful,  as  kind,  as  true  to  you 
as  you  have  been  to  us!"  Such  houses  will  endure  for- 
ever, their  foundation  is  firm,  and  will  never  be  removed. 
Filial  piety  is  the  fountain  of  life.  It  may  not  always 
prolong  the  days  of  an  individual,  who  may  be  cut  off  by 
blindly-seizing,  blindly-destroying  disease.  But  it  is  sure 
to  give  long  life  to  a  people,  in  whose  midst  it  is  found. 
Filial  piety  gave  to  faint  Israel  power  to  endure  in  the  ages 
of  darkness  and  persecution.  It  imparted  abundant  strength 
to  the  feeble  remnants  of  Jacob  wandering  as  fugitives  over 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Youthful  nations  shall  faint  and  be 
weary,  and  young  warrior-races  shall  utterly  fail.  But  the 
children  of  Israel  that  love  and  honor  father  and  mother 
both  in  deed  and  word,  shall  mount  up  with  wings  like 
eagles;  they  shall  run  and  not  be  weary,  they  shall  walk 
and  not  be  faint. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


TT7HAT  is  the  duty  of  the  pulpit?  In  what  does  the 
^  ^  peculiar  office  of  the  preacher  consist?  He  is  a 
teacher,  no  doubt.  But  what  shall  he  teach  ?  What  kind 
of  knowledge  is  it  his  ministry  to  impart  to  the  people? 
Our  answer  is :  The  office  of  the  preacher  has  grown  out  of 
the  office  of  the  ancient  prophets  of  Israel;  or  rather,  it  is 
the  very  same,  only  modified  in  many  external  and  inter- 
nal respects,  in  order  to  meet  the  altered  conditions  and 
requirements  of  the  times.  The  -preachers  are  to  be  the 
successors  of  the  Israelitish  prophets. 

Of  course,  all  preachers  are  not  true  disciples  of  the 
prophets.  There  are  unworthy  men  who  usurp  and 
degrade  the  high  calling  of  a  religious  and  moral  teacher. 
They  regard  their  calling  as  a  business  like  any  other  busi- 
ness. They  are  ministers  for  revenue  only.  The  larger 
their  income,  the  more  contented  they  are  with  their  work 
and  their  congregation.  They  are  anxious,  above  all 
things,  to  please  the  people,  on  whom  they  depend  for  a 
living.  They  are  most  eager  to  be  popular  with  the  rich  and 
influential  members  of  their  congregation.  The  first  ques- 
tion with  them  always  is,  What  do  my  people  like  best  to 
hear?  How  shall  I  satisfy  their  taste?  I  must  attract  and 
entertain  them.  I  must  make  them  admire  me  as  an  orator! 
They  shall  flock  to  hear  me  with  the  eager  curiosity  which 
makes  them  wish  to  see  a  famous  actor  or  opera  singer. 
The  saddest  feature  of  all  is,  that  such  contemptible  and 
vain  hirelings  are  the  favorite  preachers  of  large  numbers  of 
American  Jews.  They  are  in  our  time  and  generation 
what  the  false  prophets  were  in  the  days  of  old. 

Like  the  corruptors  of  the  people  in  those  far-off  ages, 
they  speak  smooth  things,  such  as  their  bread-givers  like  to 


321 

hear.  They  tickle  the  ear  of  their  Jewish  hearers  with  ful- 
some flattery.  They  tell  them  that  the  Jews  are  by  nature 
better  than  the  Gentiles,  that  they  are  by  race  intellectu- 
ally and  morally  superior  to  every  people  on  earth.  They 
persuade  men,  who  ought  to  be  roused  to  a  consciousness 
of  their  narrow  selfishness,  dense  ignorance,  and  material- 
istic life,  that  they  are  the  chosen  aristocracy  of  the  whole 
human  family.  They  mislead  the  people,  making  them 
believe  that  all  is  well  with  the  Jews,  that  they  are  secure 
in  their  hereditary  virtues,  that  there  is  for  them  no  dan- 
ger of  spiritual  decay  and  moral  degeneracy.  They  tell 
people  who  are  mere  dwarfs  in  all  things  save  commercial 
shrewdness,  that  they  are  the  most  enlightened  men  on 
earth.  They  lay  the  unction  to  the  heart  of  those  who  are 
dead  to  the  higher  life,  deaf  to  the  voice  of  religion,  and 
blind  to  the  wonders  of  creation,  that  they  are  far  above 
their  ancestors  who  for  ages  suffered  martyrdom  for  the 
sake  of  their  religious  and  ethical  ideas.  Like  their 
ancient  prototypes,  the  modern  false  prophets  do  not  sorrow 
over  the  faults,  the  sins,  and  the  follies  of  their  people. 
They  care  only  for  their  own  personal  glory  and  advan- 
tage. The  highest  aim  of  these  men  is,  to  win  applause  at 
any  price.  They  cater  to  the  low  intellectual  wants  of 
the  ignorant  majority.  Their  sermons  do  not  rise  above 
the  mental  and  moral  level  of  the  multitude.  They  try 
but  to  amuse,  and  to  coax  a  smile  of  approval  and  a 
look  of  admiration  from  their  self-satisfied  hearers.  These 
phrase-mongers  and  hired  players  turn  the  pulpit  into  a 
stage,  on  which  they  strut  about  and  cut  capers  for  the  delec- 
tation of  those  who  pay  for  the  show.  The  dull  and  stupid 
go  away  delighted  with  themselves,  because  they  spent  a 
pleasant  half-hour  without  being  compelled  to  think  and 
learn  something  new.  These  clerical  play-actors  are  usually 
surrounded  after  the  service  by  an  ignorant  crowd  who  con- 
gratulate them  upon  their  entertaining  speech,  assuring 
them  that  they  have  expressed  exactly  their  ideas  and  sen- 
timents. 


322 

Fortunately,  the  number  of  pernicious  foxes  who  destroy 
the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  is  not  as  great  as  one  might  judge 
from  the  noise  they  make.  A  large  number  of  modern 
preachers  take  their  calling  most  seriously.  They  feel 
overwhelmed  by  the  magnitude  of  the  duties  which  their 
sacred  office  imposes  upon  them.  They  know  that  they 
are  sitting  in  the  seat  of  the  prophets.  This  thought  robs 
them  of  peace  and  contentment.  Their  soul  is  ever  on 
fire.  They  feel  that  they  are  responsible  to  God  and  their 
conscience  for  the  moral  life  or  death,  for  the  religious 
growth  or  decay,  of  every  member  of  their  congregation. 
They  consider  themselves  as  watchmen  on  the  tower  of 
time.  They  constantly  hear  a  voice  crying  :  "Woe  to  the 
watchman  who  falls  asleep  or  abandons  his  post  in  search 
of  ease,  and  allows  the  forces  of  evil  to  work  havoc  with- 
out let  or  hindrance!"  Can  you  fathom  the  despair  of 
him  who  says  to  himself:  "Woe  is  me!  The  children  of 
God  are  becoming  mere  toiling  machines,  mere  pleasure- 
seekers,  because  I  fail  to  teach  them  the  truths  eternal  of 
the  prophets,  because  I  can  not  awaken  them  from  their 
spiritual  slumber"?  What  is  wealth,  what  matters  glory, 
friendship,  or  enmity  to  men  who  know  themselves  to  be 
the  messengers  of  God  to  their  brothers,  appointed  to 
proclaim  His  everlasting  laws  of  righteousness,  to  teach 
faith  in  a  supreme  Power  of  justice  and  love,  to  inspire  all 
hearts  with  firm  trust  in  an  ever  ruling  Providence?  The 
true  preachers  are  never  doubtful  as  to  what  is  the  duty  of 
the  pulpit. 

To  teach  with  tongues  of  fire  the  belief  in  the  absolute 
and  infinite  ground  of  all  being,  the  belief  in  the  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth,  the  belief  in  one  all-wise  God,  the 
Father  and  Lover  of  mankind,  the  Lawgiver,  Judge,  and 
Redeemer  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  this  is  the  first 
and  foremost  truth  which  the  pulpit  must  inculcate  in  sea- 
son and  out  of  season.  This  belief  is  the  essence  and  soul 
of  the  religion  of  the  prophets.  This  faith  was  the  source 


323 

of  their  inspiration,  the  secret  of  their  courage  and  power. 
The  preacher  who  is  silent  and  indifferent  about  this 
central  idea  of  all  true  religion,  the  minister  who  does  not 
care  whether  his  flock,  young  and  old,  have  the  fear  and 
love  of  God  in  their  hearts,  is  a  lying  wretch,  worse  than 
the  thief  and  forger.  If  a  preacher  knows  that  many  of 
his  parishioners  call  in  doubt  and,  worse  still,  actually  dis- 
believe the  existence  of  God,  shall  he  observe  silence 
about  this  all-embracing  theme,  in  order  not  to  be  consid- 
ered a  bore? 

I  have  frequently  been  told  by  members  of  my  congre- 
gation :  "  We  Jews  are  no  believers ;  we  do  not  go  to  the 
temple  to  be  instructed  on  matters  of  faith.  We  are  not 
interested  in  such  questions.  Talk  to  us  on  live  topics ! 
We  know  all  you  can  tell  us  on  that  old  subject." 

I  would  be  a  contemptible  time-server,  a  miserable 
slave  working  for  wages,  were  I  not  to  use  all  the  argu- 
ments of  philosophy  and  history  and  all  the  means  of 
persuasive  eloquence,  in  order  to  re-awaken  their  slumber- 
ing faith  or  recall  to  life  their  dead  belief  in  God.  Though 
I  might  not  convince  them,  I  have  done  my  duty. 
Though  I  may  grieve  over  the  lack  of  success,  my  con- 
science at  least  is  clear.  But  if  I  neglect  this  paramount 
duty  for  fear  of  being  considered  a  tedious  speaker,  I  stand 
accused  before  God  and  my  conscience.  Every  soul  lost 
to  faith  will  be  accounted  to  me  as  spiritual  murder. 

The  belief  in  God  is  no  mere  metaphysical  conception. 
It  is  the  highest  ethical  idea,  containing  within  itself  all 
the  principles  of  moral  conduct,  all  the  ideals  of  humanity. 
To  preach  the  fear  and  love  of  God,  means  to  preach  right- 
eousness, to  show  the  ways  of  life  and  goodness  revealed 
by  Him  through  the  aspiring  souls  of  His  prophets.  To 
the  faith  of  Yahve,  God  and  goodness  are  identical 
I  thoughts.  For  the  Israelite  to  believe  in  God  signifies  to 
observe  the  divine  laws  of  justice  and  mercy.  It  is  there- 
fore the  duty  of  the  pulpit  to  teach  the  good  or  godly  life. 


324 

God  and  righteousness  must  be  the  theme  of  the  preacher's 
sermons  just  as  they  were  the  burden  of  the  prophets'  ora- 
cles. It  is  the  duty  of  the  pulpit  to  measure  the  conduct 
of  the  people,  in  things  both  great  and  small,  by  the  stand- 
ard of  the  highest  moral  and  religious  ideas.  The 
preacher  should  be  like  the  prophets  of  old  —  the  living, 
ever-wakeful  conscience  of  his  congregation.  It  is  not  the 
province  of  the  pulpit  to  entertain.  This  is  the  business 
of  the  stage  and  other  like  institutions.  It  lies  outside  of 
the  sphere  of  the  pulpit  to  impart  any  kind  of  secular 
knowledge  as  an  end  in  itself.  The  pulpit  uses  the  knowl- 
edge supplied  by  science,  art,  and  history  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  into  light  the  truths  of  faith  and  trac- 
ing the  ideas  and  enforcing  the  laws  of  moral  conduct. 

It  is  the  preacher's  mission  to  be  the  religious  and 
moral  monitor  of  his  congregation.  He  should  fearlessly 
criticise  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  men  and  the  women, 
the  young  and  the  old,  for  their  moral  shortcomings. 
There  is  no  pardon  for  him  from  God,  if,  from  fear  of  mak- 
ing enemies,  he  fails  to  tell  Jacob  his  transgression  and 
Israel  his  sin.  He  must  be  full  of  noble  enthusiasm  for 
the  perfect  life,  and  on  all  occasions  compare  his  own  con- 
duct and  that  of  his  fellow-men  with  the  moral  ideals  set 
up  by  the  prophets  and  teachers  of  Israel. 

To  do  this  persistently  and  successfully  he  must  be  a 
man  of  dauntless  courage.  He  must  not  be  afraid  of  giv- 
ing offense  to  the  leaders  of  his  congregation.  He  must 
speak  the  truth,  however  unpleasant,  though  he  run  the 
risk  of  losing  the  friendship  of  influential  men.  He  must 
preach,  teach,  and  act  in  accordance  with  his  deepest  con- 
victions, and  be  wholly  unconcerned  about  the  conse- 
quences which  might  flow  therefrom  to  his  own  detriment. 
He  must  be  ready  to  give  up  his  charge  at  any  moment 
and  go  with  his  family  to  face  poverty,  rather  than  be  a 
flatterer  and  hypocrite.  He  must  be  willing  to  be  an 
object  of  vicious  criticism  to  the  ignorant  puffed  up  with 


325 

their  own  conceit,  an  object  of  scorn  to  shallow  scoffers 
and  to  the  purse-proud  gilded  youth.  To  discharge  faith- 
fully the  duties  of  the  pulpit,  the  preacher  must  be  free 
from  vanity  and  pride.  He  must  be  a  despiser  of  money, 
indifferent  to  public  applause  and  all  the  shows  and  trap- 
pings of  external  honors.  He  must  love  the  cause  of 
religion  and  morality  better  than  his  own  life.  He  should 
work  with  an  eye  single  to  the  spiritual  growth  and  moral 
advancement  of  the  community.  He  should  be  contented 
to  be  a  failure  in  all  that  concerns  his  own  interest,  if  he 
but  succeed  in  helping  men  to  understand  and  realize  the 
higher  life. 

No  man  can  devote  all  his  energies,  with  a  sustained 
effort,  to  the  general  good,  unless  he  feels  that  he  has  a 
mission  from  God  to  do  such  life-work,  arduous  and  thank- 
less, yet  of  inestimable  value.  No  minister  can  be  a  fearless 
champion  of  truth,  reckless  of  all  consequences,  defying 
the  powerful  and  rich,  chiding  the  masses,  putting  the  proud 
to  the  blush,  if  he  is  not  inspired  by  deathless  love  for  the 
highest  well-being,  the  immortal  good  of  his  fellow-men. 

The  true  teacher  in  Israel  glows  with  enthusiasm  for 
the  universal  mission  of  Yahvism.  He  is  consumed  with 
sleepless  care  for  the  present  and  the  future  of  this  people 
of  endless  sorrows  and  immortal  destinies.  Infinite  pity 
and  love  possess  his  soul  for  poor  maligned  Israel.  His 
heart  is  full  of  grief,  because  actual  Israel  falls  so  sadly 
behind  the  ideal  Israel  of  the  prophets. 

His  eyes  grow  dim,  as  he  sees  the  missionary  people 
of  spirituality  mostly  sunk  in  materialism.  He  burns 
with  indignation  that  the  servant  of  God  refuses  to  live 
and  work  any  longer  for  his  high  calling,  that  the  people 
of  the  Book  of  Revelation  no  longer  know  nor  care  to  know 
the  Book  of  Life,  which  the  Christian  nations  cherish  as 
the  apple  of  their  eye.  Therefore  must  he  raise  his  voice 
like  a  trumpet  and  tell  the  Israelites  their  sins  and  rebuke 
them  for  their  faithlessness  and  the  spiritual  deadness  of 
their  souls. 


326 

Whoever  is  a  true  teacher  in  Israel  will  not  only  try  to 
improve  the  outward  conduct  of  men,  he  will  also  put 
forth  strenuous  efforts  to  change  their  heart,  and  ennoble 
their  inward  life.  It  is  his  duty  to  guide  and  educate  the 
higher  faculties  of  their  soul,  to  plant  in  them  the  princi- 
ples of  righteous  conduct,  to  transform  and  elevate  their 
character.  Good  actions  which  do  not  spring  from  noble 
motives  are  of  no  moral  value  to  the  doer  of  them. 
Charity  which  is  not  born  of  love  is  mere  dust  and  chaff. 
The  virtues  which  have  not  their  roots  deep  in  a  moral 
will  are  merely  acts  of  prudence  or  a  blind  habit.  It  is 
the  duty  of  the  preacher  to  enlighten,  spiritualize,  and 
invigorate  the  will.  He  should  feed  the  will  of  his  hearers 
on  the  sublimest  moral  ideas,  on  the  inspiring  examples  of 
the  world's  greatest  leaders,  the  immortal  revealers  of 
truth. 

The  pulpit  has  still  grander  aims  to  pursue.  It  must 
not  be  satisfied  with  judging,  for  praise  or  censure,  the 
actions  and  motives  of  men  by  the  moral  standards  and 
ideas  of  the  past.  The  pulpit  has  inherited  from  Hebrew 
prophecy  the  mission  ever  to  extend  the  boundaries  of 
ethical  knowledge  and  insight,  to  go  on  developing  the 
moral  ideas  from  more  to  more,  to  make  the  ideals  of 
humanity  ever  loftier  and  diviner.  The  preacher  should 
endeavor  to  be  among  the  pathfinders  of  moral  progress. 
He  ought  to  be  among  the  first  to  see  the  visions  of  the 
larger  and  better  life  which  is  to  be  in  coming  days.  The 
light  of  new  spiritual  evolutions  should  first  dawn  upon 
his  wakeful  soul,  and  his  clear  notes  should  proclaim  to 
the  age  the  gospel  of  nobler  duties  and  sweeter  modes  of  life 
than  known  to  former  generations.  The  principles  of 
morality  are  not  something  absolutely  fixed  and  stable. 
They  are  no  antique  precious  stones,  polished  to  perfec- 
tion by  the  master-hands  of  departed  artificers  and  trans- 
mitted as  an  heirloom  from  generation  to  generation,  to  be 
preserved  in  their  given  shape,  not  to  be  increased  nor 


327 

diminished.  The  moral  ideas  and  ideals  are  capable  of 
infinite  growth.  They  are  the  seeds  divine  implanted  in  the 
human  soul.  There  is  no  bound  to  their  powers  of 
growth.  They  unfold  with  the  unfolding  life  of  civiliza- 
tion and  are  the  flower  and  fruit  of  the  growing  social 
organism.  It  is  the  office  of  the  religious  teacher  to  look 
into  the  moral  needs  of  his  time  and  show  to  the  people  the 
new  fruits  of  the  spirit  which  the  conditions  of  the  age  are 
ripening.  For  the  genius  of  history  gives  to  every  age 
new  problems  to  solve.  The  old  solutions  never  fully 
meet  the  new  conditions.  The  social  diseases  of  our  time 
can  not  be  wholly  cured  by  the  remedies  offered  by  the 
religious  and  moral  thought  of  past  times.  Those 
appointed  to  lead  the  people  must  closely  observe  the 
movements,  the  evils,  the  conflicts  and  dangers  of  their 
time,  and  rise  to  conceptions  of  social  duty  higher  than 
those  recognized  heretofore.  The  loud  discords  of  our 
day,  the  fierce  feud  of  poor  and  rich,  the  clashing  of  inter- 
ests and  classes,  demand  ideals  of  private  and  public  con- 
duct towering  above  the  prevalent  ideas  and  ideals  of 
justice  and  mutual  obligations.  It  is  the  office  of  the  pul* 
pit  to  bring  home  to  the  heart  of  the  people  the  higher 
claims  which  humanity  makes  in  our  day  on  individuals 
and  society,  and  to  fire  them  with  enthusiasm  to  co-operate 
with  the  work  which  the  age  is  charged  to  perform. 

It  is  not  enough  for  the  preacher  to  inculcate  only 
what  may  be  called  the  private  virtues  and  to  neglect  the 
field  of  public  or  civic  virtues.  The  duties  of  citizenship 
form  a  very  important,  perhaps  the  most  important,  part 
of  morality.  Yet  this  whole  province  of  ethics  is  persist- 
ently left  alone  by  most  preachers.  The  selfish  dema- 
gogues of  our  time,  who  fear  nothing  as  much  as  the 
moralizing  influence  of  the  pulpit  on  public  opinion,  have 
inoculated  the  masses  with  the  idea,  that  the  pulpit  should 
not  be  allowed  to  discuss  the  social  and  political  problems 
of  the  day.  A  few  preachers  of  superior  character  and 


328 

power,  such  as  the  late  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  have  shown 
the  moral  courage  to  defy  this  pernicious  superstition. 
They  dared  follow  the  example  given  by  their  great  proto- 
types, the  Hebrew  prophets,  who  stood  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  currents  of  the  time  and  judged  all  events,  all  politi- 
cal actors  and  parties,  by  the  infallible  standard  of  uni- 
versal justice  and  social  truth.  The  modern  preachers  of 
righteousness  should  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  their  immor- 
tal predecessors.  Their  mind  should  take  an  absorbing 
interest  in  the  political  and  social  life  of  their  own  nation 
and  also  of  all  the  nations  who  play  a  part  in  the  drama 
of  modern  civilization.  They  should  have  a  comprehen- 
sive knowledge  of  the  history  of  their  own  people  and  of 
all  the  great  races,  and  be  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
leading  facts  and  general  truths  which  bear  on  the  economic 
conditions  of  social  well-being.  They  should  know  and 
teach  by  what  virtues  and  principles  nations  rise,  and  by 
what  vices  and  follies  they  fall.  The  American  minister 
should  by  study  and  observation  come  to  have  a  clear 
insight  into  the  fundamental  moral  principles  on  which 
the  republic  rests,  and  by  the  sapping  of  which  it  is  bound 
to  perish.  It  is  his  office  to  warn  the  people  of  the  dan- 
gers which  threaten  the  commonwealth,  to  make  known 
the  maladies  which  are  vitiating  its  vitality,  and  to  rouse 
men  and  women  to  a  sense  of  their  individual  responsibil- 
ity for  the  evils  which  are  poisoning  the  fountain-heads  of 
national  life. 

The  newspapers  have  largely  absorbed  this  all-impor- 
tant function  of  the  ministry,  and  claim  to  discharge  it 
better  than  any  other  agency  hitherto  known.  But  unfor- 
tunately, very  few  of  them  make  good  their  claims  to  be 
conscientious  and  wise  guides  of  the  people.  Being  merely 
business  enterprises,  most  of  them  have  but  one  aim,  to 
make  money  by  all  means,  fair  or  foul.  Most  of  them  are 
the  worst  exponents  of  the  lying  spirit  of  blind  and 
unscrupulous  partisanship.  Instead  of  moulding  public 


329 

opinion  in  the  interests  of  the  general  good  of  the  country, 
many  of  them  lend  their  influence  and  voice  to  the  worst 
passions  of  sectional  partisanship  or,  worse  still,  are  in  the 
pay  of  organized  plunderers  and  self-seeking  political  cote- 
ries. But  for  those  newspapers  which  are  above  party  and 
above  the  lust  for  wealth,  the  press  of  the  country  would 
have  to  be  considered  a  power  for  evil  rather  than  for 
good.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  pulpit  to  give  all  its  strength 
to  the  cause  of  political  morality  so  nobly  represented  by  a 
few  independent  and  truly  patriotic  newspapers.  It  must, 
of  course,  keep  aloof  from  politics  in  the  narrow  sense, 
from  all  party  strife  and  contention.  The  preacher  must 
not  descend  into  the  arena  of  common  political  warfare. 
But  he  should  be  foremost  in  righting  against  official  cor- 
ruption, against  debasing  and  falsifying  the  suffrage 
through  fraud  and  chicanery,  foremost  in  doing  battle  for 
honesty,  efficiency,  and  economy  in  the  administration  of 
city  and  state,  for  patriotism,  honor,  and  wisdom  in  those 
clothed  with  authority. 

The  pulpit  is  eminently  fitted  to  render  this  kind  of 
service  to  the  people.  For  the  sincere  teachers  of  faith 
and  righteousness  are  most  likely  to  penetrate  to  the  moral 
root  of  the  questions  which  agitate  the  nation,  because 
their  high  calling  excludes  the  thought  of  political  ambi- 
tion, because  their  mental  vision  and  judgment  are  not 
obscured  by  greed  of  office  and  the  love  of  power.  The 
preacher  who  is  inspired  by  the  shining  example  of  the 
prophets  has  no  desire  to  rule  and  command.  Men  in 
whom  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  lives  incarnate, 
have  no  wish  to  be  the  rulers  of  the  people.  They  only 
long  to  be  the  instruments  of  public  justice  and  the  mes- 
sengers of  social  truth  to  the  people.  They  do  not  parade 
as  statesmen,  nor  do  they  dream  of  obtaining  political 
power.  All  they  strive  after  is  that  mercy  and  truth  shall 
meet  together  in  the  land,  that  righteousness  and  peace  shall 
kiss  each  other  in  every  part  of  the  commonwealth,  that 


330 

truth  shall  spring  out  of  the  heart  of  the  people  and  jus- 
tice look  down  from  the  high  places  of  the  earth.  The 
only  reward  they  hope  for  is,  that  they  may  open  the  eyes 
of  the  blind,  so  as  to  make  them  see  the  dangers  of  the 
times,  and  may  cause  the  ears  of  the  deaf  to  hear  the  warn- 
ing voice  of  the  God  of  history. 

But,  while  dealing  with  the  questions  of  the  day,  the 
religious  teacher  should  ever  rise  in  his  instructions  and 
monitions  from  the  individual  case  to  the  universal  ideas, 
from  passing  events  to  the  eternal  truths  which  hover  as 
creative  powers  above  all  times,  all  happenings,  all  nations. 
From  the  bewildering  perplexities  and  confusions  of  the 
hour,  he  must  ascend  with  his  hearers  to  the  imperishable 
ideals  of  humanity;  from  the  finite,  he  must  take  the  people 
with  him  on  the  wings  of  thought  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  Infinite ;  from  the  shifting  rules  and  laws  of  the  day,  he 
should  rise  with  them  to  stand  face  to  face  with  the  eter- 
nal verities  which  will  endure  though  heaven  and  earth 
pass  away. 


WHAT  MAY  MINISTERS  AND 

LAYMEN  ACCOMPLISH  IN 

HALF-AN-HOUR? 


'\T7HAT  might  a  minister  do  in  half -an -hour?  Why, 
the  answer  is  self-evident !  He  may,  in  half-an-hour, 
deliver  a  beautiful  and  soul-stirring  sermon,  abounding  in 
moral  truths  and  adorned  with  all  the  graces  of  genuine 
oratory.  Within  that  space  of  time  an  eloquent  preacher 
may  make  a  speech  so  powerful  as  to  lift  scorners  by  sheer 
spiritual  force  out  of  their  seat  of  vanity  and  sin  and  carry 
them  in  a  column  of  fiery  but  righteous  wrath  to  the  very 
heaven  of  repentance.  In  thirty  minutes  a  true  minister 
of  God  may  melt  the  stoniest  hearts  in  his  audience,  and 
thaw  them  into  dew  of  pity.  Half-an-hour's  time  should 
be  sufficient  for  a  religious  speaker  to  handle  any  subject 
skillfully  and  exhaustively,  making  it  clear  even  to  the 
comprehension  of  the  least  educated,  while  at  the  same 
time  charming  the  intelligence  and  taste  of  refined  minds 
by  chasteness  of  diction  and  wealth  of  thought.  A  lect- 
ure of  thirty  minutes'  duration  may  be  made  a  gem  of 
composition  and  truth.  All  this,  and  much  more,  may  be 
accomplished  in  half-an-hour,  and  even  in  less  time. 

Well,  why  do  ministers  so  seldom  do  what  appears  so 
desirable  from  the  point  of  view  of  wisdom,  harmony,  and 
economy?  Why  do  they  so  often  keep  their  helpless  vic- 
tims in  an  agony  of  yawning  and  dull  despair  for  forty- 
five  minutes,  frequently  a  whole  hour,  and  sometimes  the 
length  of  an  hour  and  a  half?  Like  innocent  lambs 
doomed  to  slaughter,  the  hearers  sit  in  dumb  misery  sub- 
mitting to  their  cruel  fate,  their  only  consolation  being  the 


332 

thought  that  they  are  suffering  for  their  many  sins. 
Wretched  indeed  is  the  state  of  the  audience  while  the 
flood-gates  of  the  preacher's  vocabulary  are  opened  and  a 
torrent  of  turbid  and  turgid  words  is  being  poured  out 
upon  them,  overflowing  their  minds  and  drowning  every 
sensation  but  that  of  their  utter  helplessness  and  inability 
to  escape.  The  gates  of  the  church  or  synagogue  are  shut 
upon  them  by  the  inexorable  sexton,  and  unless  they 
should  faint  or  die  outright,  they  are  bound  to  stay  to  the 
end,  and  neither  God  nor  angel  can  help  them.  Should  the 
forlorn  creatures,  from  time  to  time,  stealthily  take  out  their 
watches  to  measure  the  length  and  width  of  their  desola- 
tion and  anguish,  the  minister  darts  at  them  a  look  of 
withering  indignation,  so  that  they  shrink  like  guilty 
things  and  blush  for  shame. 

Many  preachers  that,  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  thus  vex 
and  afflict  the  best  and  most  reverential  portion  of  suffering 
humanity,  are  never  aware  of  their  sinful  ways,  never  learn 
to  know  that  by  their  long  discourses  they  make  the  earth 
less  habitable  and  less  endurable.  Some  preachers,  how- 
ever, who  at  times  deliver  interminable  sermons  or  lect- 
ures, happen  to  have  true  friends  and  a  sensitive  con- 
science to  tell  them  that  they  have  fallen  into  evil  ways. 
Then  forsooth  they  do  repent  and  mourn  over  the  deed 
that  was  overdone,  and  grieve  over  the  overgrown  sermon, 
which,  with  its  unnaturally  lengthened  limbs  and  dropsical 
body,  has  descended  into  the  grave  of  oblivion.  Of  the 
latter  class  of  preachers  that  often  transgress  the  bounds  of 
time,  but  invariably  are  plagued  by  remorse  afterward,  I 
confess  to  be  one!  But  a  week  ago — last  Friday  night — I 
again  drew  out  my  lecture  to  the  length  of  three-quarters 
of  an  hour.  Immediately  after  service  cruel  conscience 
began  to  attack  me  with  bitter  taunts  and  reproaches.  I 
slunk  out  of  the  house  of  God  abashed  like  a  ghost  at  cock- 
crow !  I  took  a  walk  with  self-contempt  at  my  side.  The 
very  stars  seemed  to  wear  a  contemptuous  smile;  they 


333 

trembled  so  ironically !  I  seemed  to  hear  them  say,  "  Brev- 
ity is  the  soul  of  wit,"  aye,  "brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit!" 
It  was  late  when  my  perturbed  soul  could  find  rest  in 
sleep. 

Alas,  it  was  but  for  a  short  while  that  I  enjoyed  the 
blessing  of  self-forgetfulness  !  For  soon  the  god  of  dreams 
began  to  play  his  mischievous  pranks  and  tricks  about  me. 
I  dreamed  that  I  was  dead  and  lay  in  a  silver-mounted  cof- 
fin ready  for  interment.  I  saw  a  vast  amount  of  flowers  in 
the  room,  and  felt  sorry  to  be  no  longer  alive,  that  I  might 
preach  a  strong  sermon  against  such  waste  of  money  which 
could  be  spent  to  better  purpose  in  aid  of  the  poor.  I 
regretted  exceedingly  to  leave  an  intelligent  and  generous 
congregation.  Still  more  did  I  grieve  to  part  from  my 
family.  I  was  distressed  that  I  should  nevermore  be  able 
to  read  the  books  of  many  great  minds,  which,  through 
idleness,  I  had  in  my  life-time  failed  to  read.  It  was,  how- 
ever, a  great  consolation  to  know  for  certain  that  the  uni- 
versal hope  and  belief  of  mankind  in  the  immortality  of 
man's  soul  was  no  mere  dream,  but  a  reality.  Was  not  my 
spirit,  while  the  body  lay  motionless  and  lifeless,  thinking, 
meditating,  and  loving,  even  with  greater  energy  and  clear- 
ness than  before?  Soon  a  large  number  of  good  and  tried 
friends,  Jewish  and  Gentile,  filed  in  and  took  of  me  a  last 
look  of  infinite  pity  and  tenderness.  I  heard  my  praises 
sounded  on  all  sides  from  all  lips  in  so  extravagant  a  man- 
ner that  my  soul,  which  knew  better,  blushed  for  shame, 
although  my  bodily  face  continued  pale  and  expressionless. 
All  at  once  I  heard  one  man  say  to  a  group  of  four  or  five 
other  men  in  a  low  whisper,  yet  not  low  enough  as  not  to 
be  overheard  by  me :  "All  the  good  they  say  about  him, 
now  that  he  is  gone,  may  be  true ;  but  Heaven  forgive  him 
his  long  sermons  and  his  still  longer  lectures !  At  times 
he  was  a  great  bore.  How  anxiously  I  watched  many  a 
Friday  evening  for  the  end  of  the  lecture  that  seemed 
never  to  come.  I  pitied  myself  and  the  other  hearers, 


334 

but  most  of  all  the  officers  who  are  perched  high  in 
their  seats  of  honor.  The  rest  of  the  auditors  could  at 
least  turn  about  and  give  vent  to  their  impatience  by  sighs 
and  expressive  contortions  of  their  features.  But  the  poor 
officers  from  their  high  station,  exposed  on  all  sides  to 
observation,  had,  by  superhuman  efforts,  to  hide  their 
misery  from  the  public  eye  and  show  a  satisfied  and  serene 
countenance.  I  liked  our  lamented  friend  best  during  his 
annual  vacation."  The  whole  group  looked  and  nodded 
assent  One  of  them,  whose  name  I  still  remember, 
heaved  a  deep  sigh  and  remarked:  "Ah,  poor  soul,  he  is 
dead  now,  he  meant  it  well!"  And  I  who,  while  in  the 
flesh,  was  so  sensitive  to  criticism  and  prone  to  acknowl- 
edge any  fault,  being  now  wholly  spiritual,  felt  neither 
indignation  nor  remorse  nor  compassion.  Speak  on,  I  said 
to  myself,  complain  to  your  heart's  content  of  the  length 
of  my  sermons!  God  will  surely  reward  me  for  having 
made  a  thorough  use  of  the  rare  opportunities  you  offered 
me  to  see  and  address  you  in  the  house  of  God.  When  I 
happened  to  have  you  sinners  before  me,  I  was  bound  to 
give  you  two  or  three  doses  of  moral  medicine  at  once. 

Presently  a  change  came  over  the  spirit  of  my  dream. 
I  was  standing  on  the  dismal  shore  of  the  river  of  death, 
and  there  came  toward  me  an  old  man  in  a  boat.  His  long 
beard  was  white  with  hoary  age,  his  eyes  were  glowing  and 
shining  like  orbs  of  fire.  He  beckoned  to  me,  and  winged 
desire  wafted  me  from  the  river  bank  into  the  boat.  It 
was  a  strange  vessel !  Some  parts  were  beautiful,  made  of 
finest  wood  with  artistically  carved  figures.  Certain  spots 
were  covered  with  plates  of  gold  and  inlaid  with  precious 
gems.  Other  parts  of  the  same  boat,  however,  consisted  of 
rotten  wood  with  many  holes  in  it,  through  which  the  dark 
waters  were  splashing.  About  the  tenth  portion  of  the  sail 
was  formed  of  purest  white  linen,  but  the  rest  was  made 
up  of  dingy  rags  loosely  held  together.  But  the  queerest 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  frightful  feature  were  numer- 
ous tail-like  appendages  of  immense  length,  which  were 


335 

grown  out  of  the  very  body  of  the  boat  and  trailing  along- 
side of  it  in  the  water.  They  seemed  endowed  with  life, 
for  they  were  writhing  and  twisting  themselves  as  if  in  great 
pain  and  fear.  Around  them  were  swimming  huge  mon- 
sters, that  eagerly  swallowed  them,  but  immediately  cast 
them  forth  again.  And  I  said  to  the  ferryman:  "Master, 
explain  to  me  the  mystery  of  this  bark!  Why  is  it  so 
shabby  and  gorgeous  at  the  same  time?  Have  you  no  bet- 
ter material  and  no  more  skillful  builders  in  your  world?" 
And  he  answered:  "Deluded  mortal,  this  is  the  shadowy 
image  of  thy  life  on  earth.  The  plates  of  gold  mean — " 
"Stop!"  I  cried,  "explain  no  more;  I  fully  and  sadly  under- 
stand the  structure  of  this  boat.  But  tell  me,  what  are 
these  long  appendages  and  the  monsters  following  them?" 
Then  the  lank  cheeks  of  Charon  distorted  themselves  into 
a  grim  and  deathly  smile,  as  he  replied:  "Poor  man,  whom 
flatterers  on  earth,  and  especially  those  sons  of  Belial,  the 
poetical  reporters,  called  an  eloquent  speaker,  these  append- 
ages are  the  excrescences  of  thy  long  sermons,  the  shadows 
of  thy  interminable  lectures.  Who  are  the  monsters,  thou 
askest?  They  are  the  ennui,  the  tedium,  impatience,  and 
despair  of  thy  hearers.  They  had  to  swallow  the  intel- 
lectual food  thou  didst  offer  them,  but  they  could  not  retain 
it."  "Cruel  demon!"  I  exclaimed,  with  tears  of  rage  in 
my  eyes,  "wouldst  thou  even  rob  me  of  the  good  opinion 
I  have  of  my  work  on  earth?"  He  vouchsafed  me  no 
reply ;  his  eyes  only  looked  merciless  scorn  that  thrilled  me 
with  anguish. 

Soon  I  was  brought  before  the  dreaded  Seat  of  Judg- 
ment, and  found  myself  standing  at  the  foot  of  the  throne 
of  the  Ineffable  Majesty.  A  flood  of  many-colored  lights 
streamed  forth  from  the  mystery  of  Divine  Presence.  I 
could  not  look  at  the  glory  before  me,  for  my  eyes  were 
dazzled  as  if  by  the  rays  of  ten  thousand  suns.  I  closed 
my  eyes  and  stood  with  my  head  bent  downward.  Then 
I  heard  a  low  voice  of  soul-bewitching  sweetness.  It  spoke 


336 

to  me  in  tones  thrilling  with  pity  and  love  like  that  of  a 
father  gently  chiding  his  erring  child.     "My  son,"    He 
said,  "I  have  called  thee  away  from  earth,  and  summoned 
thee  to  appear  before  My  tribunal.     The  days  of  thy  pil- 
grimage in  the  world  of  mortality  are  ended.     Thou  hast 
made  poor  use  of  the  precious  gift  of  time  while  abiding 
on  the  star  which  mortals  call  Earth.     I  gave  thee  eyes  to 
see  with  awe  My  manifold  wonders,  to  behold  with  rever- 
ence the  living  revelations  of  My  creative  will.     I  vouch- 
safed unto  thee  eyes  to  become  mirrors  of  creation's  beauty, 
and  with  worshiping  joy  to  gaze  into  the  starry  depth  of 
the  universe.     Yet  thou,  My  mortal  child,  didst  close  them 
to  the  heavens  above  that  declare  My  glory,  and  didst  bend 
them  earthward  to  seek  gold  and  silver  or  to  be  affrighted 
by  the  shadows  of  thy  passing  sorrows.     Though  endowed 
by  Me  with  wondrous  vision,  thou  hast  lived  in  the  world, 
wherein  I  have  planted  the  tree  of  knowledge,  a  life  of 
blindness.     Thou  hast  not  plucked  the  delicious  fruits  of 
knowledge  that  were  within  thy  reach.     Thou  has  left  the 
world  of  sense  as  ignorant  of  its  harmony  as  when  thou 
wast  made  to  enter  it.     Thou  hast  spent  the  best  part  of 
thy  time  in  idleness  and  suffered  half  of  it  to  be  consumed 
in  vanity.     Child   of  My  love,  how  grievously  hast  thou 
failed!     Hadst  thou  given  but  half-an-hour  every  week  to 
the  contemplation  of  My  works,  and  the  understanding  of 
My  laws  that  bind  suns  to  remotest  suns,  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  My  eternal  will,  as  it  liveth  and  stirreth  in  infinite  forms 
and  with  expanding  creative  love  ascends  from  plant  and 
lowly  worm  through  bird  and  beast  to  lordly  man,  hadst 
thou  thus  turned  thyself  but  thirty  minutes  in  seven  days 
to  learn  and  know  My  ways,  thou  wouldst  have  lived  on 
with  a  life  of  joy  as  wide,  as  rich,  as  divine  as  My  bound- 
less revelation,   which  mortals  call   Nature!     What  hast 
thou  done  with  thy  time?     My  messengers  I  sent  to  man- 
kind  in   all   generations,    My  prophets,  seers,  and  sweet 
singers,  My  high-priests  of  truth  have  bequeathed  to  thee 


337 

treasures  of  wisdom,  have  revealed  My  ways,  the  ways  of 
goodness  and  justice,  love  and  mercy,  have  brought  down 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  eternal  from  heaven  to 
earth.  They  have  laid  quite  bare  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  and  unveiled  the  mysteries  of  existence!  Hadst 
thou  devoted  every  day  of  thy  life  but  half-an-hour  to  learn 
and  understand  what  untold  ages  with  toilsome  labor 
have  prepared  for  thee,  thou  wouldst  have  gained  much  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  noblest  minds  that  lived  in  thy  time 
and  before  thee,  thou  wouldst  have  fallen  heir  to  the  king- 
dom of  the  past  and  the  present.  Half-an-hour's  time  every 
day  of  thy  life  devoted  to  suffering  humanity,  would  have 
dried  many  a  tear,  would  have  lifted  many  of  My  fallen 
children  from  the  dust,  might  have  rescued  many  a  weak 
man  or  woman  from  utter  ruin!  Thirty  minutes  given 
day  after  day  to  thy  needy  and  helpless  fellow-men,  would 
have  lessened  the  evils  of  earth  and  increased  its  joys. 
Half-an-hour  snatched  daily  from  thy  selfish  pleasures 
and  selfish  griefs,  would  have  built  up  some  of  the  waste 
places  of  the  earth  and  made  it  more  habitable  and  beauti- 
ful. Hadst  thou,  since  thou  didst  arrive  at  maturity,  con- 
secrated half-an-hour  every  day  to  gather  together  all  the 
truth  accessible  to  thee  on  any  subject  in  the  realm  of 
nature  or  mind,  and  written  day  by  day  a  passage  of  lucid 
and  earnest  truth,  thou  mightest  have  left  behind  thee  a 
valuable  book  as  a  lasting  memorial  of  thy  earthly  life. 
As  it  is,  thou  hast  but  written  two  wretched  novels,  that 
nobody  reads,  but  thy  friends,  out  of  kindness  for  thee. 
But  more  grievously  than  in  all  these  things,  hast  thou 
sinned  as  a  preacher.  I  took  thee  from  behind  the  plow 
of  poverty  and  delivered  thee  from  the  hand  of  oppressing 
care,  and  said  unto  thee:  Be  thou  a  teacher  unto  My  chil- 
dren, to  guide  them  in  My  ways  and  to  lead  them  gently 
along  My  path,  to  strengthen  the  weak  with  the  words  of 
thy  mouth,  to  infuse  courage  into  the  despairing.  I  des- 
tined thee  to  serve  the  spirit  of  My  truth  in  the  midst  of 


My  congregation,  to  lead  the  lost  sheep  of  Israel  to  the 
mountain  of  My  revelation,  and  enkindle  the  sacred  fire  of 
faith  in  the  hearts  of  the  young.  But  woe  is  thee,  My  son ! 
how  sadly  hast  thou  failed  in  thy  holy  mission.  Instead  of 
drawing  them  toward  their  Maker,  toward  truth,  righteous- 
ness, and  love,  by  means  of  short,  attractive  sermons,  full 
of  sound  doctrine  and  sound  morality,  thou  hast  kept  my 
sons  and  daughters  from  My  house  through  wearisome, 
long  speeches  and  lectures.  Thou  hast  frightened  away 
My  people  from  the  fount  of  truth,  thou  hast  turned  the 
Sabbath  eve  into  hours  of  distress  and  of  torture  to  their 
spirit.  But  for  thee  they  would  have  crowded  My  sanctu- 
ary, listened  eagerly  to  the  words  of  admonition.  The 
terror  of  thy  endless  lectures  kept  them  at  home,  where 
they  joined  themselves  together  to  indulge  often  in  the 
games  invented  by  Satan,  the  arch-enemy  of  the  human 
race.  Thou  hast  been  weighed  and  found  wanting,  because 
thou  hast  given  little  in  too  many  words." 

When  I  had  heard  these  dread  words  issuing  from  the 
mouth  of  Eternal  Justice,  I  changed  color,  my  knees 
knocked  against  each  other  with  trembling,  my  whole 
frame  shook  with  terror.  Soon  I  fell  on  my  face  in  agony 
of  despair.  Then  an  angel  touched  me  lightly  on  the 
shoulder  and  whispered,  "Rise  and  plead  for  mercy!  for 
He  is  a  merciful  God."  I  therefore  rose  to  my  feet,  and 
raising  my  hands  toward  the  seat  of  Divine  Mercy,  I  said, 
weeping  bitterly:  "O  pardon  and  forgive  Thy  erring  ser- 
vant !  I  sinned,  but  not  in  a  spirit  of  willfulness,  I  ever 
intended  to  make  my  sermons  and  lectures  short,  but  they 
invariably  turned  out  long.  But  I  am  not  the  only  trans- 
gressor. My  teachers,  great  leaders  in;  Israel,  used  also  to 
make  exceedingly  long  speeches.  I  imitated  their  evil  ways, 
as  most  all  my  coternporaries,  Jewish  and  Christian,  were 
noted  for  their  desperately  long  sermons.  Candor  embold- 
ens me  to  say,  that  compared  with  some  of  the  most  famous 
preachers,  I  am  the  very  embodiment  of  brevity.  Besides, 


339 

I  never  preach  longer  than  forty-five  minutes."  A  voice  of 
thunder  rebuked  me:  "Speak  no  falsehood  in  the  presence 
of  thy  Maker!  Last  Day  of  Atonement  thou  didst  preach 
an  hour  and  a  half.  The  young  of  my  temple  therefore 
staid  away  from  the  evening  service,  and  have  not  returned 
to  this  day."  "Pardon  and  forgive  my  iniquity,"  I  again 
pleaded,  "let  me  but  once  more  return  to  the  earth!  I 
will  mend  my  ways.  I  will  never  preach  longer  than 
twenty  minutes."  "No,  half-an-hour  thou  mayest  con- 
sume, but  no  more ;  for  once  I  will  be  gracious  unto  thee 
and  restore  thee  to  thy  family,  thy  books,  and  thy  congre- 
gation. But,  beware!  an  angel  will  watch  thee,  invisible 
to  thee.  The  very  first  instance  thou  exceedest  the  bound 
of  time,  off  thou  goest,  never  to  return!"  "Thanks  and 
praise  to  Thee,"  I  said,  with  overflowing  gratitude,  "for 
Thy  lovingkindness.  But  suppose  a  subject  should  require 
more  time?"  "Then  break  it  off  in  the  middle!"  There- 
upon Divine  Mercy  commanded  two  angels  to  bring  me 
back  to  earth.  They  bore  me  on  their  wings  to  my  home, 
and,  strange  to  say,  thrust  me  in  through  the  window  into 
my  dwelling-place.  I  found  myself  bathed  in  tears.  I 
then  vowed  solemnly  to  keep  forever  the  promise  I  had 
made  before  the  Seat  of  Judgment. 


HELL  AND  HEAVEN. 


T   * 


"T7OU  wish  me  to  state  my  views  regarding  Hell  and 
•*-  Heaven.  Really,  I  am  ashamed  to  confess  how 
densely  ignorant  I  am  at  present  as  to  those  interesting 
localities.  Thirty-two  years  ago  I  visited  Hell  for  the  first 
and  last  time.  I  was  then  in  my  feeble  way  helping  to 
drive  out  the  Bourbon  Devils  from  Naples.  This  occupa- 
tion awakened  in  me  the  desire  to  go  and  see  the  Devils  in 
their  celebrated  home.  So  I  descended  one  day  into  Hell 
with  my  trusty  Italian  guide,  Dante  Alighieri.  Thus  I 
acquired  a  pretty  accurate  knowledge  of  the  geography  and 
topography  of  Hell.  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  many 
highborn  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  of  numbers  of 
renowned  preachers  and  politicians.  They  all  fanned 
themselves  constantly  on  account  of  the  oppressive  heat.  I 
was  introduced  to  several  Devil  gentlemen,  the  superin- 
tendents of  the  various  departments,  the  most  courteous 
among  whom  was  the  chief  of  the  fire  department.  He 
made  me  acquainted  with  one  of  his  principal  officers,  the 
head  of  the  Standard  oil  department,  which  is  used  there 
for  heating  and  cooking  hard  sinners.  Since  then  I  have 
not  visited  that  tropical  country,  because  I  dislike  exces- 
sive heat.  It  makes  me  bilious.  I  can  not,  therefore,  tell 
what  Hell  looks  like  nowadays. 

Many  great  changes  have  since  taken  place  which  must 
have  greatly  altered  the  state  of  things  down  there.  For 
instance,  slavery  has  been  abolished  in  the  South  and  in 
several  other  countries.  When  I  was  a  little  boy  the  com- 
ets used  to  be  considered  wandering  hells,  traveling  hotels, 
as  it  were,  for  the  accommodation  of  sinful  souls.  Science 

*A  letter  to  the  editor  of  Truth,  a  Louisville  weekly. 


has,  however,  lately  discovered  that  comets  are  but  assem- 
blages or  chains  of  meteors  loosely  held  together  by  mutual 
attraction.  There  is  surely  no  room  on  them  for  an  infer- 
nal establishment.  Is  the  moon  a  hell,  as  wise  men  and 
women  formerly  thought  it  to  be?  In  my  present  lament- 
able state  of  ignorance  I  dare  not  give  either  an  affirmative 
or  negative  answer  to  this  all-important  question.  Still,  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  the  transitions  from  dreadful 
heat  to  horrible  cold,  though  supplying,  without  any  extra 
arrangement,  most  suitable  torments  for  the  wicked,  must 
in  the  long  run  totally  ruin  the  health  of  the  supervising 
Devils.  Ague  and  fever  must  make  life  unbearable  to 
them,  and  determine  them  to  emigrate.  Indeed,  I  honestly 
believe  that  Hell  has  of  late  years  been  transferred  to  the 
earth — to  Russia.  Millions  of  souls  are  tormented  there 
by  veritable  devils.  Religion,  manhood,  self-respect,  honor, 
hope,  are  crushed  out  of  them  by  contrivances  which  no 
devils  in  Hell  could  have  conceived.  By  means  of  half  a 
million  of  sub-devils,  the  arch-devil  has  succeeded  in  turn- 
ing multitudes  of  human  beings  into  beasts.  That  Hell, 
misnamed  a  Christian  country,  is  surrounded  by  high  and 
thick  walls  of  ignorance;  it  has  lofty  gates,  the  accursed 
gates  of  despotism.  The  inscription  on  those  gates  ought 

to  be: 

Per  me  si  va  nella  citta  dolente, 
Per  me  si  va  nel  eterno  dolore, 
Per  me  si  va  tra  la  perduta  gente, 
Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  voi  ch'entrate ! 

"Through  me  you  pass  into  the  city  of  woe;  through 
me  you  pass  into  eternal  pain ;  through  me  to  the  people 
lost  for  aye;  all  hope  abandon  ye  who  enter  here!" 

As  to  Heaven,  I  will  tell  you  all  I  know  about  it,  precious 
little  though  it  be.  I  lived  in  Heaven  many  ages  before  I 
became  a  denizen  of  this  planet.  I  have  still  a  faint  recol- 
lection of  how  bitterly  I  cried  when  I  was  bidden  to  leave 
the  ever-green  meadows,  the  garden  of  bliss,  with  its  trees 


342 

bearing  the  fruits  of  knowledge  and  joy,  and  take  up  my 
abode  in  the  house  of  a  poor  minister.     I  clung  to  the  feet 
of  my  guardian  angel  and  implored  him  to  let  me  stay 
and  forever  play  with  the   young  angels,  with  whom    I 
went  daily  to  school  and  received  instruction  from  Gabriel. 
My  guardian  angel  took  me  in  his  arms,  laid  my  head  on 
his  bosom,  and  lulled  me  to  sleep  with  a  magic  song,  of 
which  I  remember  but  these  few  detached  words:  "Serv- 
ant of  God,  suffering  love,  doing  good  to  God's  children, 
uprooting  evil."     When  I  woke  up,  I  found  myself  in  a 
small  room,  lighted  up  by  two  tallow  candles.    I  was  gazed 
upon  with  intent,  solemn  eyes  by  two  bearded  men,  one 
very  old,  the  other  young,  and  I  heard  the  faint  whispered 
words  of  a  pale,  beautiful  young  woman,  "Oh,  God,  bless 
my  first-born  son,"  to  which  her  aged  mother  devoutly  said, 
"Amen,  amen!"     I  was  so  deeply  agitated  that  I  began  to 
cry  aloud  and  bitterly.    I  cried :  "Heaven,  oh  lost  Heaven; 
take  me  back  to  Heaven!"     My  human  relatives  did  not 
understand  me,  but  my  guardian  angel  whispered :  "Be  still, 
prove  worthy;  try  to  regain  Heaven.     Make  a  Heaven  of 
this  earth.     I  will  not  forsake  thee,  and  bring  thee  often 
Heaven's  messages."    During  the  first  five  years  of  my  life 
Heaven  was  not  entirely  shut  out  from  my  vision.     Lying 
on  my  back  on  the  meadow  stretching  behind  our  house,  I 
would  for  hours  look  up  to  the  blue  heavens  above.    After 
awhile  several  little  angels,  my  former  playmates,  would 
open  a  window  and  smilingly  look  upon  me  and  talk  to 
me.    Sometimes  they  opened  a  gate  so  that  my  vision  could 
penetrate  far  into  the  interior  of  Heaven.     Then  I  would 
see  angels  and  saints   move  in  solemn   procession  to  the 
heavenly  sanctuary,   singing    soul-bewitching     songs,    of 
which  the    echoes  reached    my  ear.     Since  that    blessed 
time  I  saw  so  much  deviltry,  misery,  and  oppression  on 
earth  that  they,  together  with  my  own  sins  and  passions, 
have  sadly  dimmed  my  sight.     The  world's  bitter  preju- 
dices, the  cruel  fanaticisms  of  race,  men's  spiritual  pride, 


343 

their  religious  conceit  and  arrogant  ignorance  strutting 
about  in  the  livery  of  Heaven,  have  shut  out  Heaven.  The 
sighs,  the  groans,  the  cries  of  the  oppressed,  have  rendered 
the  echoes  of  the  heavenly  music  inaudible.  Yet,  I  hope 
that  before  I  shall  take  my  final  departure  from  this  planet 
my  eye  will  once  more  see  the  visions  of  childhood  and 
my  ear  hear  the  gracious  melodies  of  Heaven ;  and  if  not 
here,  then  in  the  hereafter.  I  believe  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  and  in  a  return  to  God.  Whatever  He  has 
reserved  for  man  in  the  world  to  come,  I  accept  with  a 
loving  and  confiding  soul.  More  I  do  not  know ;  more  I 
can  not  know.  Yet,  I  envy  those  divines  who  have  two 
telephones  in  their  house,  connecting  them  both  with 
Hell  and  Heaven.  No  wonder  that  they  have  such  accu- 
rate and  minute  knowledge  of  both  places !  Listening 
through  the  telephone  at  their  left,  they  hear  the  agonized 
cries,  the  bitter  lamentation  of  the  tortured  wicked,  the 
gnashing  of  their  teeth,  the  sound  of  their  hands  clapping 
together  in  hopeless  woe.  And  straightway  they  sit  down 
and  give  in  a  sermon  to  be  delivered  a  faithful  account  of 
what  they  have  heard,  hoping  thereby  to  terrify  the  sin- 
ners. Then  they  go  to  the  telephone  to  their  right. 
Hark,  they  are  listening !  They  hear  all — the  hymns  and 
hallelujahs  of  the  blessed,  their  conversations  and  discus- 
sions. They  hear  more.  They  hear  all  that  the  Lord 
says.  All  His  plans  and  purposes  are  made  known  to  them 
in  detail.  With  what  glee  they  then  write  down  for  the 
edification  of  the  elect  all  the  joyous  news  their  pious  ears 
have  taken  in!  Blessed  men  we  call  them,  because  they 
are  the  depositaries  of  all  the  secrets  of  Hell  and  Heaven. 


MUSIC  AND  RELIGION. 


"TV  yf  USIC  and  song  are  the  universal  language  of  religion. 
•*M*-  All  hearts  understand  it,  all  souls  are  thrilled  by  it. 
All  men,  whatever  their  creed  or  no  creed,  rise  on  the 
waves  of  music  above  their  own  narrow  selves,  and  com- 
mune with  the  general  Soul.  By  means  of  song  and  music 
alone  does  the  human  mind  succeed  in  expressing  the 
inexpressible.  In  this  language  alone  can  the  spirit  of 
man  speak  mouth  to  mouth  with  the  universal  Spirit.  In 
musical  strains  the  heart  of  mortals  is  able  to  voice  its 
quenchless  longing  after  the  Eternal.  Only  in  the  accents 
of  song  can  Faith  chant  the  soul's  undying,  mystic  love  of 
the  Lord  of  all. 

The  understanding  in  vain  stretches  lame  hands  of 
inquiry  to  grasp  the  Infinite.  It  gropes  along  the  narrow 
paths  of  knowledge  to  find  the  eternal  verities  in  which 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  established.  Yet  it  gathers 
but  dust  and  chaff.  The  understanding  can  not  embrace 
God,  the  all-enfolding  Unity,  the  living  Harmony  of  all 
existence.  For  the  intelligence  is  compelled  by  its  own 
constitution  to  divide  the  indivisible  One.  In  order  to 
comprehend  aught,  it  must  break  up  the  inseparable  Unity 
into  parts.  Thought  is  forever  chained  to  palpable  or 
imaginable  forms.  The  most  abstract  ideas  must  still  wear 
the  shapes  and  features  of  things  visible,  at  least  of  sensu- 
ous experience.  In  order  to  become  knowable  they  must 
assume  a  name  which  circumscribes  and  isolates  them. 
The  understanding  lives  and  has  its  being  wholly  in  finite 
parts.  Its  home  and  office  are  within  the  confines  of  the 
senses.  It  can  not  transcend  experience,  and  all  experience 
is  bound  to  parts.  It  has  no  wings  on  which  to  reach  the 
Infinite  and  Absolute. 


345 

Faith  is  not  the  offspring  of  the  understanding.  The 
belief  in  one  only  God,  the  infinite  ground  of  all  existence, 
the  belief  in  an  absolute  principle  of  unity  embracing  both 
nature  and  the  soul,  the  belief  in  a  universal  Reason  and 
Love  transcending  human  comprehension,  has  not  come  to 
us  as  a  message  of  the  analyzing  and  comparing  under- 
standing. The  belief  in  a  Power  Divine  which  makes  for 
the  better  and  the  best  in  nature  and  for  righteousness  in 
the  growing  life  of  man,  is  not  the  fruit  of  the  mind's 
gathered  experience  systematized  as  science.  Such  faith  is 
the  immediate  revelation  of  the  absolute  Self  and  Reason 
in  the  reason  of  man.  Enclosed  and  safe  within  our  cen- 
tral heart  abides  the  belief  in  the  Divine  Unity.  Faith  in 
the  existence  of  the  Universal  and  Infinite,  faith  in  an  all- 
good  Power,  is  the  indestructible  ground  underlying  all  our 
beliefs  and  thoughts.  God  is  the  highest  and  ultimate 
truth  which  we  can  not  prove,  because  there  is  nothing 
beyond  it  to  prove  it  by,  because  all  truths  spring  from  it 
and  are  a  dream  without  it.  But  when  the  understanding 
is  called  to  give  a  clear  expression  to  the  soul's  inexpres- 
sible faith,  to  define  the  indefinable,  it  staggers  and  blun- 
ders and  fails.  It  must  give  a  name  to  the  nameless  Mys- 
tery. Any  name  individualizes  and  isolates  what  is  the 
Be-all,  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  all  existence. 
The  attributes  of  God  are  minutely  analyzed.  His  rela- 
tions to  the  world  and  the  soul,  to  free-will  and  necessity, 
to  good  and  evil,  are  carefully  elaborated  and  worked  up 
into  systems  of  theology.  The  soul's  immediate  percep- 
tion of  the  Divine  and  Universal  is  made  to  wear  the 
chains  of  analyzing  logic.  Faith  is  imprisoned  in  words. 
The  word  is  worshiped  instead  of  the  living  presence  of 
God  in  the  worshiping  soul.  Names  are  adored  in  place 
of  the  ineffable  Reality,  which  is  beyond  the  ken  of  lan- 
guage. Every  creed,  therefore,  articulates  and  proclaims 
but  part  of  the  universal  truth.  Hence  the  jar  and  discord 
of  the  churches,  each  claiming  to  be  alone  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  knowledge  of  God.  Hence  the  mad  Babel-din 


346 

of  warring  sects  and  dogmas.  Hence  the  demon-fury  of 
fanaticism  and  religious  hate.  Mankind  has  been  these 
many  thousands  of  years  building  the  tower  of  faith  which 
shall  reach  to  Heaven.  But  there  is  confusion  of  tongues 
among  the  builders,  so  that  one  can  not  understand  the 
religious  language  of  another. 

But  when  the  soul  utters  forth  her  longing  and  hope 
and  adoration  in  music  and  song,  the  din  and  confusion  of 
creeds  cease  at  once.  All  souls  are  of  one  faith,  while  they 
hear  the  universal  language  of  faith.  For  this  language  is 
free  from  the  limitations  of  thought,  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  logical  categories,  from  all  the  letters  of  common 
speech.  Music  does  not  deal  with  particulars.  It  hovers, 
an  uncaught  bird,  in  the  pure,  divine  air  of  the  universal, 
the  spiritual.  Music  is  the  spirit  of  harmony  which  moves 
as  the  principle  of  unity  above  the  parts,  giving  them 
meaning  and  beauty.  God  is  the  living  Harmony  of  the 
universe,  the  creative  Unity  of  nature  and  humanity.  By 
the  magic  of  music's  harmon}'  the  soul  is  able  to  reveal 
its  faith  and  ecstatic  joy  in  the  all-pervading  Harmony 
Divine  we  adore  and  love  as  God.  In  the  music  of  a 
Handel,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  and  Mendelssohn  this  Divine 
Mystery  sounds  its  clearest  notes  of  love  and  redemption, 
and  wells  up  in  the  thousand  responses  of  the  yearning 
heart.  From  of  old  all  true  prayer  has  been  a  song, 
accompanied  by  the  sounds  of  musical  instruments.  It  is 
in  the  immortal  songs  called  the  Psalms  that  Faith 
sounded  all  the  heights  and  depths  of  the  soul's  relation  to 
the  World-Soul.  It  is  in  the  swelling  song  of  the  congre- 
gation, rising  and  falling  with  the  hymnal  notes,  that  all 
hearts  feel  their  nearness  to  God,  and  experience  the  beati- 
tude of  spirits  blending  in  adoration  with  the  Universal 
Spirit. 


JACOB'S  DREAM. 


A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE.* 


the  uttermost  ends  of  our  land  my  love  comes  to 
you  in  this  hour  with  greetings  on  its  wings.  From 
the  shore  of  the  far-sounding  Pacific  I  send  you  my  bless- 
ings for  the  New  Year.  Three  thousand  miles  separate  me 
from  the  objects  of  my  love,  from  my  friends,  from  the  con- 
secrated spot  where  I  have  for  twenty  years  tried  to  teach 
you  the  truth  of  God  and  the  ways  of  the  higher  life. 
While  my  body  is  far  away  from  you,  my  mind  is  at  this 
moment  in  closest  touch  with  your  mind,  my  meditations 
blend  with  your  devout  thoughts,  my  prayers  for  your  wel- 
fare in  the  coming  year  mingle  with  your  own  prayers  and 
together  ascend  to  the  throne  of  the  Eternal.  Impelled 
by  quenchless  longing,  my  soul  wings  its  flight  to  the 
place  where  I  have  builded  my  spiritual  and  moral  home 
by  the  altar  of  your  sanctuary.  The  best  results  of  my 
life,  few  though  they  be  and  marred  by  many  faults  and 
mistakes,  are  stored  up  as  vital  elements  in  the  character, 
the  works,  and  the  ideals  of  Congregation  Adath  Israel.  If 
you  wish  to  judge  me,  judge  me  by  yourselves,  by  the  best 
men  and  women  now  assembled  in  the  house  of  God.  If  you 
desire  to  determine  my  worth,  gauge  it  by  the  moral  and 
intellectual  worth  of  the  generation  which  we  have  trained 
up  together  in  joy  and  in  sorrow,  to  which  we  have  devoted 
our  best  years  and  the  noblest  forces  of  our  being.  Let 

*Sent  by  the  author  to  his  Congregation  from  San  Francisco,  where 
he  was  detained  by  the  state  of  his  health.  It  was  read  by  the  Junior 
Rabbi. 


348 

our  tree  of  life  be  judged  by  its  fruits.  The  tree  itself 
may  in  a  few  years  be  withered  and  consumed,  and  its  very 
roots  decay  in  the  ground,  but  its  numerous  offshoots  will 
be  green  and  nourishing  and  bearing  fruits  in  ages  to  come, 
and  its  seeds  will  spring  up  like  cedars  of  Lebanon  in  the 
garden  of  God.  Thus,  my  true  self  is  with  you  and  within 
you.  While  physically  absent,  my  present  spirit  is  bless- 
ing you  and  your  children,  and  imploring  God  to  vouch- 
safe unto  you  a  year  of  fruitful  work,  a  year  of  rejoicing  in 
the  fruits  of  your  hands,  a  year  of  peace  and  contentment. 
My  truest  self  is  addressing  you  now  by  the  mouth  of  my 
friend  and  fellow-teacher. 

"Jacob  went  forth  from  Beer-sheba,  and  went  toward 
Haran.  And  he  lighted  upon  a  certain  place,  and  tarried 
there  all  night,  because  the  sun  was  set;  and  he  took  one 
of  the  stones  of  the  place,  and  put  it  under  his  head,  and 
lay  down  in  that  place  to  sleep.  And  he  dreamed,  and 
behold  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it 
reached  to  heaven;  and  behold  the  angels  of  God  were 
ascending  and  descending  on  it.  And,  behold,  the  Lord 
stood  above  it,  and  said,  I  am  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham thy  father,  and  the  God  of  Isaac:  the  land  whereon 
thou  liest,  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed.  .  .  .  And 
Jacob  awaked  out  of  his  sleep,  and  he  said,  Surely  the  Lord 
is  in  this  place;  and  I  knew  it  not.  And  he  was  afraid, 
and  said,  How  fearful  is  this  place!  this  is  none  other  but 
the  house  of  God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven.  And 
Jacob  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  took  the  stone 
that  he  had  put  under  his  head,  and  set  it  up  for  a  pillar, 
and  poured  oil  upon  the  top  of  it.  And  he  called  the 
name  of  that  place  Beth-el.  .  .  .  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow, 
saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this 
way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  raiment 
to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my  father's  house  in 
peace:  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God,  and  this  stone, 


349 

which  I  have  set  up  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God's  house ;  and 
of  all  that  Thou  shalt  give  me,  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth 
unto  Thee."  (Genesis,  xxviii,  10-22.) 

In  this  hour  we  are  in  the  proper  frame  of  rnind,  I 
believe,  to  understand  the  meaning  of  Jacob's  dream,  and 
to  take  home  to  ourselves  the  solemn  lessons  which  the 
beautiful  poem  was  intended  to  convey.  Our  own  personal 
experience,  bitter  and  sweet,  which  we  have  gathered  on 
our  pilgrim's  progress  may  help  us  to  interpret  aright  the 
dream  of  our  ancestor,  and  find  it  to  be  the  dream  of  our 
own  soul  groping  in  darkness  for  an  answer  to  the  riddle 
of  our  existence.  We  too  have  arrived  at  a  way-station  in 
our  lives.  It  is  called  a  New  Year.  The  sun  of  the  old 
year  has  set.  We  pause  and  rest  for  a  while  to  reflect  on 
what  has  been,  on  what  we  have  achieved  and  gained  in 
the  course  of  years.  We  survey  the  landscape  of  the  past 
and  contemplate  the  field  of  the  present.  We  ask  our- 
selves: What  good  has  life  brought  us?  Has  it  ful- 
filled the  rich  promises  which  it  made  to  us  in  our  child- 
hood and  youth?  Has  it  profited  us  to  plan  and  scheme, 
to  toil  and  bear  burdens  and  often  to  stagger  under  the 
load  of  our  difficulties  and  responsibilities?  Have  the 
seeds  which  we  have  sown  in  the  furrows  of  time  ripened 
into  a  harvest  of  happiness?  To  these  questions  we 
answer  in  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  seer  who  composed 
Jacob's  dream.  To  those  who,  like  Jacob  at  the  beginning 
of  his  career,  in  blind  selfishness  seek  the  end  and  aim  of 
their  life  in  their  own  selves,  to  those  whose  sole  ambition 
and  aspiration  it  is  to  obtain  happiness  and  glory  for  them- 
selves, life  proves  to  be  a  lonely  and  barren  desert,  as  it  did 
to  our  fugitive  forefather  during  the  period  of  his  relentles 
egotism.  We  can  not  win  the  blessings  of  life  by  self-seek- 
ing. This  is  an  eternal  law,  seated  at  the  core  of  our 
being,  working  at  all  times  and  in  all  directions,  ever  pres- 
ent and  active  in  the  heart  of  nature  and  humanity.  He 
who  thinks,  strives,  and  toils  with  an  eye  single  to  his  own 


350 

good  is  foredoomed  to  failure.  We  may  put  forth  the  most 
tremendous  efforts,  if  it  be  for  our  own  self-aggrandize- 
ment, for  our  own  glory  and  pleasure,  we  shall  find  our- 
selves thwarted  and  deceived  by  powers  we  can  not  over- 
come. Every  pursuit  whose  sole  end  is  the  benefit  of  self 
leads  to  sad  disappointment.  However  shrewdly  we  may 
contrive  it,  however  cunningly  we  may  carry  on  the  activi- 
ties of  our  life,  egotism  invariably  terminates  in  moral  bank- 
ruptcy. All  hopes  are  blighted,  all  plans  miscarry,  all  joys 
taste  bitter,  all  successes  are  felt  to  be  vain,  if  we  ourselves 
are  the  be-all  and  the  end-all  of  our  strivings 'and  achieve- 
ments. To  such  selfish  wanderers  the  field  of  existence 
offers  but  hard  stones  to  rest  their  heads  on  in  their  weary 
pilgrimage  through  the  years.  Wealth  gotten  and  used 
merely  for  selfish  purposes  turns  to  stone ;  knowledge,  cult- 
ure which  pursues  no  other  end  but  the  pleasure  and  intel- 
lectual power  of  the  owner  thereof,  instead  of  a  blessing 
becomes  a  curse.  If  a  man  is  only  for  himself,  all  goods 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  turn  to  ashes.  He  that 
seeks  himself  and  makes  himself  the  center  of  all  his  will- 
ing and  doing  will,  like  Jacob  of  old,  be  a  poor  fugitive  on 
earth,  forever  running  after  the  blessings  of  life,  while  the 
blessings  are  forever  fleeing  from  him. 

By  what  spiritual  means  shall  we  escape  such  bitter 
disappointment?  How  shall  we  avoid  being  driven  into 
the  arms  of  pessimism  or  despair  of  life?  How  shall  we 
prevent  ourselves  from  feeling  and  thinking  like  the 
Preacher  and  crying  out  with  him  on  an  occasion  like  this, 
"Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity"?  Without  the  divine 
dream  of  religion,  without  the  dream  of  an  ideal  world 
beyond  ourselves,  for  which  we  have  to  live  and  work  and 
suffer  and  sacrifice,  our  own  individual  existence  is  indeed 
a  barren  delusion.  As  soon  as  we  rise  above  the  wretched 
realities  to  which  alone  egotism  clings,  and  begin  to  dream 
the  dream  of  the  world's  seers  and  pathfinders  and  mar- 
tyrs, the  ground  on  which  we  rest  is  wondrously  trans- 
formed and  changed  into  a  heavenly  landscape.  Let  us 


but  grasp  the  central  truth  of  all  religion  and  philosophy, 
that  our  life  and  all  our  activities  do  not  reach  their  end  in 
ourselves  but  in  our  fellow-men,  in  the  social  whole  and  in 
our  descendants,  in  an  ideal  future  which  shall  realize  the 
plans  of  God.     As  soon  as  I  am  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  conviction  that  I  do  not  exist  for  myself,  and  that  my 
life-work  is  but  a  means  to  a  higher  end,  and  that  end 
reaching  out  into  an  eternal  world,  I  am  cured  of  the  dis- 
ease of  discontent  and  go  forward  on  my  pilgrimage  with- 
out fear  and  complaining,  doing  my  task  with  cheerful 
trust  and  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  Providence.    Ours  is 
the  will  to  propose  to  ourselves  various  ends  in  accordance 
with  the  dictates  of  duty  and  love.     But  the  results  of  our 
efforts  can  not  possibly  be  foreseen  by  us,  they  go  far  beyond 
us  and  are  greater  and  more  numerous  than  our  boldest 
imagination  can  divine.     Our  will,  illumined  by  wisdom, 
creates  the  deed,  but  as  soon  as  the  deed  is  created  it  goes 
forth  and  becomes  an  independent  power,  producing  influ- 
ences transcending  all  possible  calculation.     'Tis  our  glory 
that  we  may  make  ourselves  the  center  of  vast  beneficent 
effects,  but  these  effects  form  ever-widening  circles  which 
spread  far  beyond  our  vision.     No  man,  however  great  and 
far-seeing,  has  ever  done  anything  of  which  the  results  did 
not  go  infinitely  beyond  what  he  intended  to  accomplish. 
As  a  rule,  the  results  aimed  at  even  by  the  greatest  of  men 
appear  ridiculously  insignificant  compared  with  the  far-off 
results  not   intended  by  him.     Columbus  went  forth  in 
search  of  the  eastern  coast  of  India.     His  immediate  pur- 
pose was  to  gather  vast  treasures,  by  means  of  which  he  was 
to  equip  a  crusade  and  wrest  the  Holy  Sepulchre  from  the 
hand  of  the  infidel.     A  result  undreamed  of  by  him  was 
the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  effect  of  that  discovery 
surpasses  the  power  of  the  greatest  mind  to  conceive.     The 
discoverers  of  great   scientific    truths,    the   great   invent- 
ors of  steam  and  telegraphy,  have  produced  tremendous 
revolutions  in  the  thought  and  life  of  humanity  which  no 


352 

human  eye  could  foresee  and  no  fancy  grasp.  We  are  but 
instruments  in  the  hands  of  God,  willing  instruments  if  we 
are  wise,  unwilling  instruments  if  we  are  blind  and  selfish. 
With  this  vital  thought  which  came  to  Jacob  on  his 
journey,  with  this  comforting  truth  in  our  heart  to  guide 
and  cheer  us  through  the  coming  year,  we  can  not  but 
dream  tonight  the  beautiful  dream  of  the  ancient  seer,  the 
dream  of  religious  idealism,  the  dream  of  our  inalienable 
share  in  the  universal  and  eternal  life.  The  ground 
whereon  we  rest  is  not  an  isolated,  godless  spot,  full  of 
darkness  and  moral  confusion,  full  of  profitless  toil  and 
fruitless  sorrows,  but  stands  in  perpetual  inter-communica- 
tion and  inter-relation  with  the  world  above  us.  We  and 
the  place  we  inhabit  are  not  set  apart,  as  things  inferior 
and  despicable,  from  the  celestial  order.  This  earth,  our 
dwelling-place,  is  as  much  a  part  of  heaven  as  any  planet 
or  sun.  Behold,  a  ladder  is  standing  on  the  ground,  the 
top  of  which  reaches  to  heaven.  The  divine  creative 
power  forms  a  ladder  of  unity  between  the  whole  universe 
and  this  earth,  even  the  particular  place  whereon  we  abide. 
The  angels  of  God,  divine  forces  and  laws,  which  are  reve- 
lations of  His  will  and  wisdom,  are  perennially  ascending 
and  descending  thereon,  forming  a  wondrous  chain  of  liv- 
ing relations  in  heaven  and  earth.  What  an  elevating 
thought!  We  are  not  banished  away  from  God  and  the 
eyes  of  His  Providence  in  some  gloomy  corner  of  the  uni- 
verse. We  are  seated  at  the  very  heart  of  existence.  The 
light,  the  creative  love,  and  the  manifestations  of  the  Eter- 
nal are  constantly  descending  down  unto  us  from  every  star 
and  world-system,  while  answering  influences  ascend  with- 
out ceasing  from  the  earth  to  all  the  realms  of  heaven. 
Each  of  us  is  a  part  of  this  universal  order.  No  man  is  so 
insignificant,  so  humble  and  poor  that  he  has  no  part  in 
the  universal  life.  Blessed  dream,  that  shows  us  our  dig- 
nity, our  greatness  and  importance  in  relation  to  the 
heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath !  The  place  whereon 


353 

we  stand  is  holy  ground.  With  our  feeble  powers  we  are 
doing  the  work  of  the  Eternal,  with  every  noble  act  and 
thought  and  sacrifice  we  are  sending  forth  influences, 
which  rise  on  the  ladder  of  humanity  to  affect  for  good 
generations  yet  unborn.  Our  existence  is  rooted  in  the 
earth,  but  the  true  end  and  aim  of  our  life  reach  to  heaven, 
and  the  purpose  of  our  work  and  sufferings  is  accomplished 
in  the  vast  and  ever-growing  life  of  humanity. 

What  a  joyful  dream  is  vouchsafed  unto  us  on  solemn 
occasions  like  this!  Despair  of  life  can  not  invade  our 
soul.  We  feel  that  we  have  not  lived  in  vain.  We  are 
associated  with  the  heaven  of  humanity,  with  the  best 
hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  race  through  our  children 
and  disciples.  A  ladder  is  standing  on  the  ground  and 
the  top  thereof  reaches  to  heaven.  And  on  that  ladder 
we  see  the  angels  of  God,  immortal  souls,  descend  to  us  in 
the  guise  of  loving  sons  and  daughters.  Every  child  is  a 
messenger  from  heaven,  a  revelation  of  the  grace  and  love 
of  our  Eternal  Father.  Through  our  children  by  blood 
or  spiritual  adoption  we  make  ourselves  immortal  on  earth. 
Through  them  we  project  ourselves  into  futurity.  Through 
them  we  reach  out  a  hand  to  grasp  the  hand  of  far-off 
generations.  Through  them  we  become  a  beneficent 
power  which  shall  not  pass  away. 

At  the  same  time  we  behold  tonight  other  angels 
of  God  ascending  on  the  ladder  of  existence  from  earth 
to  heaven.  We  see  beloved  beings,  venerable  fathers 
and  mothers,  darling  children,  brothers  and  sisters,  com- 
panions of  our  life  leaving  this  earth  and  mounting  heaven- 
ward to  dwell  transfigured  and  blessed  in  the  world  of 
immortality.  Through  our  departed  friends  our  heart  is 
in  close  touch  with  heaven.  Through  our  deathless  love 
which  we  bear  to  them  we  are  in  constant  communication 
with  the  spiritual  world.  Our  holy  memories  are  our  rich- 
est ideal  possessions.  They  make  us  realize  that  we  are 
but  a  link  in  the  endless  living  chain  of  generations;  that 


354 

it  is  our  duty  to  continue  the  life  and  work  of  our  fathers 
and  forefathers,  and  transmit  it  enriched  with  new  ideals 
and  moral  powers  to  our  children  and  children's  children. 
They  remind  us  that,  though  our  pilgrimage  on  earth  be 
short,  it  is  yet  a  journey  towards  the  city  of  God,  towards 
the  promised  land  of  universal  love  and  justice,  toward 
which  nations  and  individuals  are  moving  in  procession, 
led  by  the  light  of  divine  wisdom. 

Let  us  be  grateful  to  the  world's  seers  for  having  taught 
us  to  dream  the  blissful  dream  of  religion  !  For  in  the 
vision  of  that  dream  we  find  ourselves  in  the  constant 
presence  of  God.  We  are  not  alone  and  abandoned,  we 
are  not  allowed  to  wrestle  painfully  and  fail  miserably. 
Our  life  can  not  be  a  failure,  seeing  that  it  is  dedicated  to 
the  life  of  God  unfolding  itself  in  the  development  of 
humanity.  Our  work  must  be  crowned  with  success, 
because  we  know  that  it  will  blend  with  the  works  of 
innumerable  noble  men,  and  will  somehow  combine  with 
the  operations  of  Divine  Providence  throughout  the  ages. 
God  is  standing  by  us  as  He  stood  above  Jacob  in  his 
dream.  His  promises  come  to  us  as  in  the  whispering 
voice  of  a  loving  father.  They  are  sure  to  be  fulfilled, 
not  in  us  but  in  our  descendants,  in  our  spiritual  succes- 
sors in  far-off  days.  What  God  promised  to  Jacob  was 
partly  fulfilled  many  hundreds  of  years  later  in  his  chil- 
dren, is  still  being  fulfilled  in  a  thousand  ways  and  places, 
and  will  reach  its  perfect  fulfillment  only  when  all  the 
the  races  of  men  will  be  blessed  in  Israel  and  the  whole 
earth  will  be  the  holy  land  of  God,  flowing  with  the  milk 
of  human  kindness  and  bringing  forth  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace.  In  this  sense  we  are  truly  dreaming  the 
dream  of  our  ancestor,  for  we  are  all  waiting  and  working 
for  the  kingdom  of  humanity  promised  of  old  to  the 
prophets  of  Israel. 

When  we  awaken  from  the  dream  of  religion,  to  attend 
to  the  practical  duties  of  life,  we  exclaim,  with  Jacob, 


355 

"How  fearful  is  this  place!  this  is  none  other  but  the 
house  of  God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven."  Religion 
makes  us  feel  that  the  spot  we  inhabit  is  consecrated 
ground.  God  is  present  in  our  feelings  and  thoughts  and 
works.  Our  home  is  a  temple  of  God  as  much  as  any 
sanctuary.  The  house  in  which  you  bring  up  your  chil- 
dren in  the  spirit  of  lovingkindness  and  purity  and  truth- 
fulness is  as  holy  as  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem.  The  table  at  which  the  members  of  your  fam- 
ily sit  ranged  in  sweet  converse,  eating  of  the  fruits  of 
your  honest  labor,  is  an  altar  of  God.  Where  husband 
and  wife  and  children  are  twined  together  in  love,  faith- 
fulness, and  soulful  helpfulness,  there  stands  the  ladder  of 
moral  ascent,  and  there  is  the  gate  of  heaven,  through 
which  the  prayers  of  parents  for  the  welfare  of  their  chil- 
dren and  the  prayers  of  the  children  for  their  parents  rise 
to  God. 

In  our  truest  house  of  God,  which  is  our  home,  we 
vow,  like  Jacob,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  to  be  satis- 
fied with  whatever  God  will  grant  us.  Be  it  little  or  much, 
let  us  be  satisfied  with  the  gifts  of  God,  as  long  as  they 
enable  us  to  serve  Him  and  to  raise  servants  unto  His 
name  and  work.  Let  us  strive  after  the  grace  of  a  con- 
tented disposition.  Perfect  happiness  is  not  attainable,  is 
not  intended  for  us.  We  exist  here  for  ulterior  universal 
ends,  which  are  infinitely  more  important  and  far-reaching 
than  individual  happiness.  But  modest  contentment  is 
within  our  reach,  if  we  use  the  gifts  of  Heaven  wisely  and 
meekly.  We  have  much  to  thank  for  and  rejoice  in.  We 
should  rejoice  in  our  moral  possibilities,  in  the  power  of 
growing  wiser  in  thought,  stronger  in  willing,  kinder  and 
juster,  with  the  revolving  years.  We  should  find  content- 
ment in  the  fact  that  we  are  able  to  give  a  true  home  to 
our  beloved  ones,  by  which  we  may  become  a  blessing  to 
many  families  of  the  earth.  We  should  feel  grateful  that 
we  have  the  heart  and  the  ability  to  dedicate  part  of  our 


356 

possessions  to  God.  What  we  give  to  the  poor  and  needy, 
trying  to  lift  them  up  and  enable  them  to  earn  a  liveli- 
hood, is  given  to  God.  Whatever  wealth  and  time  and 
energy  we  spend  on  behalf  of  those  smitten  with  disease, 
whatever  efforts  and  means  we  expend  in  bringing  healing 
and  light  to  those  sorely  afflicted,  is  tithes  given  to  God  of 
what  He  has  bestowed  on  us.  Let  us  find  satisfaction  in 
the  faith  and  power  we  possess  to  change  all  the  stones  of 
hardship,  of  sorrow  and  suffering  into  one  sacred  altar,  on 
which  we  offer  daily  sacrifices  of  righteousness  and  officiate 
as  the  high-priests  of  the  ideal  humanity  which  is  to  be. 
Let  us  gratefully  rejoice  in  the  gift  of  dreaming  the  divine 
dreams  of  religion,  the  dreams  of  all -transfiguring  ideal- 
ism. Let  us  resolve  to  translate  these  dreams  into  daily 
practice  and  transform  them  into  the  living  rock  of  a  noble 
character.  With  these  thoughts  and  dreams  and  resolu- 
tions let  us  start  on  our  journey  through  the  coming  year. 


I  III  II  II I  II    II   II 

A     000178296     o 


